Atonement (film)

Atonement
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joe Wright[1]
Produced by	Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Paul Webster[1]
Written by	Novel: Ian McEwan Screenplay: Christopher Hampton
Starring	James McAvoy Keira Knightley Saoirse Ronan Romola Garai Vanessa Redgrave
Music by	Dario Marianelli[1]
Cinematography	Seamus McGarvey[1]
Editing by	Paul Tothill[1]
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Focus Features (USA) Studio Canal (France)
Release date(s)	United Kingdom September 7, 2007  United States December 7, 2007
Running time	123 min.
Country	UK France [1]
Language	English French[1]
Budget	$30,000,000
Gross revenue	$128,395,584

Atonement is a 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, directed by Joe Wright, and based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in England and France, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. Distributed worldwide by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions, it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007, and in North America on December 7, 2007.

Atonement opened the 64th Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to open the event. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film won an Oscar for the Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and was nominated for six others, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan).^[2] At the 61st British Academy Film Awards, it won the Best Film of the Year, and the Production Design award.^[3]

Plot

The film comprises four parts, corresponding to the four parts of the novel. Some scenes are shown several times from different perspectives.

Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) is a 13-year-old girl from a nouveau-riche English family and the youngest of three, and an aspiring writer. Her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) is educated at Cambridge University alongside Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the son of their housekeeper (Brenda Blethyn), whose school fees are currently paid by Cecilia's father. Though Robbie is headed for medical school soon, he is currently spending the summer gardening on the Tallis estate. It is obvious from the beginning of the film that Briony has a crush on Robbie. Their cousin, Lola Quincey (Juno Temple), age 15, and her younger twin brothers, Jackson and Pierrot (Felix and Charlie von Simson), are currently visiting the family amidst their parents' divorce. Lastly, Leon (Patrick Kennedy) - Briony and Cecilia's brother - brings home a friend named Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch), who owns a chocolate factory that is acquiring a contract to produce army rations. The Tallis family is planning for a special dinner, to which Leon happily invites Robbie (who accepts, much to Cecilia's annoyance).

Briony has just finished writing a play titled The Trials of Arabella, which she describes as about "the complications of love". However, her cousins are being difficult with regard to staging the play, much to her frustration. Alone in her bedroom, she happens to witness a significant moment of sexual tension between Robbie and her sister by the fountain, when her sister strips down to her underwear and dips into the fountain, to retrieve the lost part of a broken vase. She mistakes the sexual tension between the two for Robbie almost assaulting her sister. Shortly later Robbie writes drafts of apology letters to Cecilia, including one very explicit erotically charged version which included the word "cunt". On his way to join the Tallis family celebration, he asks Briony to deliver his letter only to realize too late that it is the erotic note he had not intended Cecilia to read. Briony secretly reads the letter and becomes even more suspicious of Robbie's intentions. When Cecilia reads the letter she is not offended and is somewhat elated, though she is angry and embarrassed that Briony has opened it.

That evening Briony encounters Cecilia and Robbie again; this time they are secluded in the library, where they have sex for the first time. However, the naive Briony witnesses the two in the throes of lovemaking and this scares her into thinking Robbie raped Cecilia. At dinner (where Robbie and Cecilia secretly caress hands under the table) Briony is verbally aggressive towards Robbie but is cut off short when her mother (Harriet Walter) tells Briony to fetch the twins. Briony finds a note on their bed saying that they are running away back home and immediately the family members split up to search for the twins on the very large estate. As Briony goes off alone into the darkness to find them, she stumbles upon a man in a dinner suit raping Lola. Though Lola - apparently traumatized - claims not to know who her attacker was (since he covered her eyes) Briony witnesses the event. Back at the estate the police have been contacted. Briony insists that she "knows who did it"; that is, who raped Lola. She tells everyone that it was Robbie. Everyone now believes the attacker to be Robbie, while Cecilia strongly refuses to believe he is guilty. Robbie later returns from the search, with the twins safely in tow, and is arrested and sent to prison.

The story then moves ahead three and a half years, to the opening phases of the Second World War. Robbie, having been convicted but released from prison on condition that he enlist, as a private in the British Expeditionary Force and is hiding in a French attic with two fellow soldiers cut off from their units during the German invasion of France. Here the dénouement of the rape accusation is shown in dialogue and flashback. Before his deployment, he was reunited with Cecilia in London, where they renewed their love, and he made a promise to return to her. Like Cecilia, eighteen-year-old Briony (now played by Romola Garai) has joined the nursing corps in London, and has tried unsuccessfully to reach her sister. Cecilia has refused contact, blaming Briony for Robbie's imprisonment. It turns out that Cecilia had broken off contact with all her family, since they all believe in Robbie's guilt.

With his two companions, the wounded and very ill Robbie finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he is waiting to be evacuated. He is told that all the soldiers are to leave the next day and falls asleep. Shortly thereafter, at the hospital where she is a probationer nurse, Briony experiences the horror of the evacuation. In one scene, a mortally wounded French soldier (Jérémie Renier (L'Enfant)) dies while she is attempting to comfort him.

After seeing a newsreel showing members of the Royal Family visiting Paul Marshall's chocolate factory, Briony attends the wedding of Marshall and her cousin Lola. At this time, Briony has flashbacks of the night when she saw Paul, not Robbie, raping Lola. On that day, Briony summons up the courage to visit Cecilia's flat and apologizes to her directly, recanting her accusation. Robbie, having been evacuated from Dunkirk, emerges from Cecilia's bedroom, awakened by the commotion of their argument, and he angrily confronts Briony. Cecilia calms him, but the couple demand that Briony immediately tell her family and the authorities the truth, so that his name can be cleared. Robbie insists that she write to him precisely what happened, and why she did it, and to give the details to a solicitor. While Cecilia and Robbie assume that a certain servant boy was the culprit, Briony reveals that she knows it was Paul Marshall, who, now having married Lola, cannot be implicated in a court of law by his wife. Briony rides the Underground away from her sister and Robbie to finally tell the truth of the affair.

The film suddenly shifts forward in time to 1999, with an elderly Briony (Vanessa Redgrave) being overcome with emotion and memory. She is being interviewed (by Anthony Minghella) about her latest novel, Atonement, and here reveals that she is dying of vascular dementia, and that this novel is her last, but that she began it first. Briony admits that the story is autobiographical. She expresses deep remorse and says that this novel, to which she gave Robbie an ending different from the reality (it is shown that both Robbie and Cecilia died in the war and were never reunited) was her chance to give her sister and Robbie the happiness and time together that they deserved—and that she stole from them.

The film closes with a scene of a simple, joyful moment of Cecilia and Robbie together at long last. The background is taken from a postcard of an English cliff-side beach that Cecilia had once given to Robbie as a promise that they would be together someday.

Cast

• Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, the elder of the two Tallis sisters.^[4] Originally intended to play 18-year-old Briony, Knightley was the first reported to have landed one of the starring roles in Atonement, having previously worked with Wright on the cinema adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice (2005).^[5] With the director and Knightley unable to agree over which character the actress should play, Wright finally decided on Cecilia "because she has none of that Elizabeth Bennet vibe."^[5] In preparing for her role, Knightley watched films from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve, to study the "naturalism" of the performances in those films that Wright wanted in Atonement.^[4]
• James McAvoy as Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper with a Cambridge education courtesy of his mother's employer. Having refused previous offers to work with Wright, McAvoy was the director's first choice (producers met several actors for the role, including Jake Gyllenhaal,^[6] but McAvoy was the only one offered the part), fitting Wright's call for an actor who "had the acting ability to take the audience with him on his personal and physical journey." The actor noted that Robbie was one of the most difficult characters he had ever played, "because he’s very straight-ahead".^[4]
• Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis (age 13), the youngest Tallis sister and aspiring novelist. Twelve-year-old newcomer Saoirse Ronan was not cast until casting director Jina Jay had come across her after many unsuccessful auditions around Great Britain. McEwan called her performance "remarkable": "She gives us thought processes right on-screen, even before she speaks, and conveys so much with her eyes."^[4] Ronan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
• Romola Garai as Briony Tallis (age 18):^[4] Following Abbie Cornish's refusal, who backed out due to scheduling conflicts with Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).^[7] She was obliged to adapt her performance's physicality to fit into the Briony appearance that had already been decided upon for Ronan and Redgrave, spending time with Ronan and watching footage of her to approximate the way the younger actress moved".^[4]
• Vanessa Redgrave as Briony Tallis (age 77): Everyone's ideal to play the older Briony,^[4] Vanessa Redgrave was the first approached (although she was not cast until they had found Ronan),^[8] committing to the role after one meeting with Wright. Accordingly, she, Ronan, and Garai worked with a voice coach to keep the character’s timbre in a similar range throughout the story.^[4]
• Harriet Walter as Emily Tallis, the matriarch of the family. Both Emily Watson^[9] and Kristin Scott Thomas^[9] were approached to play the role of Emily Tallis before the role went to Walter.
• Patrick Kennedy as Leon Tallis, the eldest of the Tallis siblings
• Brenda Blethyn as Grace Turner, Robbie's mother, the Tallis family housekeeper
• Juno Temple as Lola Quincey, the visiting 15-year-old cousin of the Tallis siblings
• Charlie and Felix von Simson as Jackson and Pierrot Quincey, Lola's nine-year-old twin brothers
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Paul Marshall, a visiting friend of Leon Tallis and Chocolate Millionaire
• Danny Mays as Tommy Nettle, a fellow soldier of Robbie
• Jérémie Renier as Luc Cornet, the wounded French soldier Briony (18) comforts in the hospital
• Nonso Anozie as Frank Mace, another fellow soldier
• Anthony Minghella as the Interviewer

Production

The film was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in Great Britain and France.^[1]

Locations

Redcar's beach was the site of the Dunkirk beach sequence, and also stood in for Bray-Dunes (original film set; August 2006).

Locations for the filming included the seafront in Redcar;^[10] Streatham Hill, South London (standing in for Balham, Cecilia's new home after becoming estranged from her family); Stokesay Court near Craven Arms;^[11] and Grimsby.^[12]

All the exteriors and interiors of the Tallis family home were filmed at Stokesay Court, Onibury, Shropshire, and chosen from the pages of an old copy of Country Life magazine.^[13] The Victorian mansion was built in 1889 by glove manufacturer John Derby-Allcroft and is still privately owned (the original McEwan novel mentions the house as having been built in the same period). London locations included Great Scotland Yard and Bethnal Green Town Hall, latter being used for a 1939 tea house scene, as well as St John's, Smith Square, Westminster, which served as location for Lola's wedding. The scenes from the 1940 Balham station were filmed in the former Piccadilly Line station of Aldwych, which was closed in the 1990s. Parts of the St. Thomas's hospital ward interior and corridors were filmed at Park Place, Henley-on-Thames; the exterior of the hospital actually being University College London.^[4]

While the third portion of Atonement was entirely filmed at the BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane, the beach and cliff scene first shown on the postcard and later seen towards the end of the film were filmed at the Seven Sisters, Sussex, more precisely at Cuckmere Haven which is incidentally quite near to Roedean School which Cecilia was said to have attended. The scenes of the French countryside were filmed in Coates and Gedney Drove End, Lincolnshire; Walpole St. Andrew and Denver, Norfolk; and in Manea and Pymore, in Cambridgeshire. The scenes shot in Redcar include a remarkably lengthy tracking shot of the seafront as a war-torn Dunkirk and a scene in the local cinema on the promenade.^[4]

Another location used in the making of the film was the Lincolnshire Town of Great Grimsby. The Dunkirk street scenes used in the film was of the Grimsby Ice Factory on Grimsby docks. The interior and exterior is present in the film, trailers and the deleted scenes on the DVD.

Release

The film opened the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to be honoured so. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival. Atonement was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007,^[14] and in North America on 7 December 2007. Worldwide distribution was managed by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions.^[1]

Reception

Critical reception

The film has received positive reviews by the majority of film critics. As of January 18, 2008, the review site Rotten Tomatoes records that 82% of 171 critics gave the film positive reviews, with a consensus that the film's "strong performances, brilliant cinematography, and lovely score make for a very successful adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel." ^[15] On the other review sites, Metacritic records an average score of 85%, based on 36 reviews.^[16] Roger Ebert gave it a four star review saying that the film was "one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee."^[17] The film was listed as number 3 on Empire Magazine's top 25 films of 2007. In the movie review television program, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper gave the film "thumbs up" adding that Knightley gave: "One of her best performances". As for the film , he commented that: "Atonement has hints of greatness but it falls just short of Oscar contention."

Keira Knightley attending the premiere of Atonement, in Leicester Square, London

Time magazine's Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #4. Corliss praised the film as "first beguiling, then devastating", and singled out Saoirse Ronan as "terrific as the confused 12-year-old."^[18][19]

On December 13, 2007 it received 7 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other film nominated for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.^[20][21] On January 13th, 2007, the film won 2 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama.

On January 16, 2008, the film received 14 BAFTA nominations for the 61st British Academy Film Awards including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director.

On January 22, 2008, Atonement received 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

On February 4, 2008, it received the Evening Standard British Film Award for Technical Achievement in Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design, earned by Seamus McGarvey, Sarah Greenwood and Jacqueline Durran, respectively.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.^[22]

• 1st - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
• 1st - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
• 2nd - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone,^[23]
• 3rd - Empire
• 4th - Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post'
• 4th - Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal'
• 4th - Richard Corliss, TIME magazine'
• 4th - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
• 4th - Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club
• 7th - Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club
• 8th - James Berardinelli, ReelViews
• 8th - Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club
• 8th - Stephen Holden, The New York Times
• 9th - Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
• 10th - Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net
• 10th - Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun
• 10th - Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

Box office

The film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007 and it has grossed £11,557,134. The film was also given a limited release in North America on December 7, 2007 and it grossed $784,145 in its opening weekend, posting a per-theatre average of $24,504 in 32 theatres. The film has grossed $50,927,067 in the US and $127,852,423 worldwide.^[24]

Awards

Wins

Atonement has been named among the Top 10 Films of 2007 by the Austin Film Critics Association, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Online, the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.^{[25][26][27][28][29][30]}

• 80th Academy Awards: Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score (Dario Marianelli)^[2]
• 61st British Academy Film Awards: Best Film (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster), Best Production Design (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)^[3]
• Golden Tomato Awards: Best Romance^[31]
• Houston Film Critics Society Awards: Top 10 Films, Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli)^[32]
• 65th Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Dario Marianelli)^[33]
• International Film Music Critics Association Awards: Film Score of the Year (Dario Marianelli), Best Original Score - Drama (Dario Marianelli), Film Music Composition of the Year (Elegy for Dunkirk, Dario Marianelli)^[34]
• Irish Film and Television Awards: Actress in a Supporting Role Film (Saoirse Ronan), Director of Photography (Seamus McGarvey).^[35]
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards: Best Youth Performance - Female (Saoirse Ronan)^[36]
• London Film Critics Circle Awards: British Actor of the Year (James McAvoy), British Actress in a Supporting Role (Vanessa Redgrave)^[37]
• Nilsson Awards for Film: Best Film, Best Original Score, Best Set Decoration, Young Artist Award (Saoirse Ronan)^[38]
• Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards: Top 10 Films, Best Cinematography (Seamus McGarvey), Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli), Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role (Saoirse Ronan)^[39]
• San Diego Film Critics Society Awards: Top 7 Films, Best Editing (Paul Tothill)^[40]
• Satellite Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton)^[41]
• 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival: Shooting and Fine Arts Award^[42]

Nominations

• 80th Academy Awards^[2]: Best Motion Picture (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Saoirse Ronan), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Achievement in Art Direction (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer), Achievement in Cinematography (Seamus McGarvey), Achievement in Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran)
• 12th Art Directors Guild Awards^[43]: Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film - Period Film (Sarah Greenwood)
• 22nd American Society of Cinematographers Awards^[44]: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (Seamus McGarvey)
• 61st British Academy Film Awards^[45]: Best British Film (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Joe Wright, Christopher Hampton), Best Director (Joe Wright), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Best Leading Actor (James McAvoy), Best Leading Actress (Keira Knightley), Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Music (Dario Marianelli), Best Cinematography (Seamus McGarvey), Best Editing (Paul Tothill), Best Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran), Best Sound (Danny Hambrook, Paul Hamblin, Catherine Hodgson), Best Make Up and Hair (Ivana Primorac).
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards^[46]: Best Picture, Best Director (Joe Wright), Best Supporting Actress (Vanessa Redgrave), Best Composer (Dario Marianelli), Best Young Actress (Saoirse Ronan)
• Chicago Film Critics Association Awards^[47]: Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Best Cinematography (Seamus McGarvey), Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli)
• 10th Costume Designers Guild Awards^[48]: Excellence in Period Costume Design for Film (Jacqueline Durran)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan)
• 65th Golden Globe Awards^[33]: Best Director - Motion Picture (Joe Wright), Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (James McAvoy), Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Keira Knightley), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Saoirse Ronan), Best Screenplay - Motion Picture (Christopher Hampton)
• International Film Music Critics Association Awards^[34]: Composer of the Year (Dario Marianelli)
• Irish Film and Television Awards: Best International Film, Best International Actor (James McAvoy), Best International Actress (Keira Knightley)^[49]
• London Film Critics Circle Awards^[50]: The Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year, British Director of the Year (Joe Wright), British Actress of the Year (Keira Knightley), British Actress in a Supporting Role (Saoirse Ronan), Screenwriter of the Year (Christopher Hampton), British Breakthrough – Acting (Saoirse Ronan)
• 55th Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards^[51]: Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature Film (Becki Ponting, Peter Burgis)
• Online Film Critics Society Awards^[52]: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Best Cinematography (Seamus McGarvey), Best Editing (Paul Tothill), Best Score (Dario Marianelli)
• Satellite Awards^[41]: Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Keira Knightley), Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Drama (Saoirse Ronan), Best Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran), Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli)
• St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards^[53]: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Cinematography Runner-Up (Seamus McGarvey), Best Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Best Score (Dario Marianelli)
• Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards^[30]: Best Director (Joe Wright), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton)
• USC Libraries Scripter Award^[54]: Best Realization of a Book Adapted to Film (Christopher Hampton, screenwriter; Ian McEwan, author)
• Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards^[55]: Best Film, Best Director (Joe Wright), Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton), Best Art Direction (Sarah Greenwood), Best Breakthrough Performance (Saoirse Ronan)
• Ivor Novello Awards : Best Original Film Score (Dario Marianelli)

Home media

Atonement Region 2 DVD was released on February 4, 2008, and the HD DVD edition was released on March 11, 2008. The Region 1 DVD and HD DVD/DVD combo editions (USA/Canada) were released on March 18, 2008.^[56][57]

See also

• Atonement (soundtrack)

References

External links

• Official site
• Atonement at the Internet Movie Database
• Atonement at Allmovie
• Atonement at Box Office Mojo
• Atonement at Rotten Tomatoes
• Atonement at MySpace
• Atonement at Metacritic

• Cast and crew interview by Georgie Hobbs, close-upfilm.com

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