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Atonement
Focus Features


8.0

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 51 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Pride & Prejudice

MPAA RATING: R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality

Starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave, and Brenda Blethyn

Atonement spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony's vivid imagination. Robbie Turner, the educated son of the family's housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony's headstrong older sister, Cecilia. Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony--who has a crush on Robbie--is compelled to interfere, going so far as to accuse Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but Robbie is arrested--and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement and to an understanding of the power of enduring love. (Focus Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Romance \| War
WRITTEN BY:	Christopher Hampton
DIRECTED BY:	Joe Wright
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: December 7, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	130 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / France
LANGUAGE(S):	English / French

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Newsweek David Ansen

No two-hour film could ever capture all the riches of McEwan's masterly novel. But Wright and Hampton's Atonement comes tantalizingly close, while adding sensual delights all its own.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Nothing in Joe Wright's screen version of Ian McEwan's dense, internalized 2001 novel of secrets and lies should really work, but damn near everything does. It's some kind of miracle. Written, directed and acted to perfection, Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance.

100

Variety Derek Elley

Rarely has a book sprung so vividly to life, but also worked so enthrallingly in pure movie terms, as with Atonement, Brit helmer Joe Wright’s smart, dazzlingly upholstered adaptation of Ian McEwan’s celebrated 2001 novel.

100

Empire Helen O'Hara

Gorgeous cinematography, a lilting score and near-faultless performances, under Wright’s assured direction, make this the first contender for next year’s Best Picture Oscar.

100

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Nothing comes easily in Atonement, especially its ending, which, both happy and tragic, is as wrenching as it is genuinely satisfying. How fitting, somehow, that a novel so devoted to the precision and passionate love of language be captured in a film that is simply too exquisite for words.

100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A singular achievement -- romantic, sensuous, intelligent and finally shattering in its sweep and thematic complexity.

100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Atonement is that rare combo: a good movie based on a good book.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

What might seem like showing off in another movie is dazzling storytelling here, packing in an hour's worth of human misery.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

An unforgettable examination of a host of dark impulses.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The result is a film that has "Masterpiece Theatre" production values but not an ounce of dust upon it.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Through unexpected and cathartic twists, this movie leaves you with atonement and redemption.

100

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The interpretation is so painstaking and moving that almost every moment delivers a shuddering jolt to the head and the heart.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

The generous, sharp performances, especially Garai's, deepen the story's emotional impact, as does Wright's assured, frequently astounding direction.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

With compelling and charismatic performances by Keira Knightley and James McAvoy as the lovers, and a stunning contribution from Romola Garai as their remorseful nemesis, the film goes directly to "The English Patient" territory and might also expect rapturous audiences and major awards.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May not hit every note perfectly, but the picture they've come up with is full-bodied and intelligent.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It’s not quite as brutalizing as McEwan’s brilliant source novel – it bears too much of a Great Art buff – but it ravishes nonetheless in its grand exploration of the sins of the daughter and a lifetime spent making reparations.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

In the end, Atonement sorts truth from fiction as it delivers a shattering kick to the solar plexus.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Atonement is effective at getting under the skin, and some audience members won't like that.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Hampton and Wright have been more than sensible when it comes to Atonement. They’ve responded intuitively to a tale that is half art and half potboiler, like so many stories worth telling.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Vanessa Redgrave, as the adult Briony, appears at the very end in a monologue that rounds out the film with heartbreaking force.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It is an amazing story, filled with quiet moments of profundity and more surprises than you could imagine.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie never goes as deep as the novel (no movie could), but it's a worthy approximation: a Merchant-Ivory movie that turns in on itself with a lucid and painful sigh.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A handsome film, an earnest film, a film with taste in music and photography and a real sense of intelligence. But too often it feels like an exercise. And even when you're impressed by it, you know you're being played.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

In the end -- an ending of such power and narrative originality (in both book and movie) that those who know it ought never breathe a word to those who don't.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

It's an imperfect movie that serves as a perfect reminder of what the movies do best.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The settings are handsome, the cinematography accomplished, the performances first-rate.

TV Guide Ken Fox

For the most part, the result is a smashing success, filled with great performances and exquisite production design. But those final moments, in which the true nature of the story is revealed, are an unmitigated disaster.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Wright wouldn't recognize unobtrusive if it tapped him on the nose--he's cross- pollinated the first half of Atonement into an Oscar-buzzy brew of Masterpiece Theatre and "Upstairs, Downstairs," with the wild English countryside tamed into an artfully lit fairy glade, and into just enough of a bodice-ripper to reel in the youth market. And not a bad one at that.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Atonement works reasonably well as a tragic romance, but that sting is dulled. As a book, it was a blow to the head; as a movie, it’s an adaptation of a book.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The characters are not hugely compelling, the performances never completely grab us, and much of the story, while visually arresting, is dramatically tedious.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The movie version feels like a stately, but watered down, episode of "Masterpiece Theatre" fused with "The English Patient."

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

You have to admire it, when so much of the competition seems inane and slack, but you can’t help wondering, with some impatience, what happened to its heart.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Atonement fails to be anything more than a decorous, heavily decorated and ultimately superficial reading of the book on which it is based.

Film Threat Jeff Beresford-Howe

Imagine if the team that made "The English Patient" tried to make the same kind of movie, with even more brave-lads-fighting-the-Jerries porn and this time with Extra Added English country manor porn, and without really good actors, and this movie is what you’d have.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Corey S. gave it a10:
Beautiful performances, breathtaking cinematography, and a scene in the hospital that leaves you emotionally devastated and in awe.

Filmfan gave it a6:
You know, this is not a bad film, and it is a serious effort. But I can't say it better than William Arnold, so I will quoate instead: "The characters are not hugely compelling, the performances never completely grab us, and much of the story, while visually arresting, is dramatically tedious." Spot on.

Scott S. gave it a5:
Whereas the amazing narrative structure of the book delivers a final punch to the gut, the movie offers only a slight nudge. The movie never comes alive, and therefore the audience never comes to care. And while James McAvoy does his best to raise our passions, Keira Knightley is distractingly bad. She looks great on the red carpet, but said carpet would be a better actress.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Most readers of literary fiction would probably concur that Ian McEwan's "Atonement" was the best example of fallible narration since Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day". Both film adaptations are flawed, but at least "Atonement" is successful in capturing the limitations that a child's intelligence would pose when confronted with an adult situation(McEwan's story is a tip-of-the-hat to Henry James' "What Maisie Knew"), but then again, maybe Briony(Saoirse Ronan) knew more than she led us to believe. "Atonement" repeats scenes that involve Robbie(James McAvoy) and Cecilia(Keira Knightley) in order to show us what Briony missed the first time. As it turns out, maybe the extended information was irrelevant. When the story jumps ahead in time, Robbie is involved with the war, a tour of duty in which he encounters no action. He spills no blood. This is part of the author's atonement, too(not explicity laid out by Vanessa Redgrave, as the older Briony). There's no need for Robbie to lose a limb, or shed blood. Briony knows that he suffered enough.

eb l. gave it a10:
Brooding, exquisitely acted and beautifully filmed. i am surprised by the negative reviews of the film.

B R. gave it a5:
A chic flick dressed up in British WWII garb. World War II seemed shorter that this movie.

Anna P. gave it a10:
Astounding, moving, heartbreaking, life-affirming and unutterably sad all at once. What a fantastic movie, definitely one of the best of the year. The cinematography is breathtaking, the acting amazing, and the story has just enough twists and turns to satisfy. I haven't read the book, it's now on the top of my Christmas list, but I just can't say enough good things about this film.

Atonement Focus Features

Atonement
Focus Features