Atonement

This movie is like a slap in the face. So brutal. Not at all shocking Keira Knightley and James McAvoy gave incredible performances. Saorsie Ronan’s outstanding performance at the young age of 12 is what really impressed me though.  What I really enjoyed about this film was the way it conveyed the pain of so many characters, especially Robbie’s. Every scene with him you see that awful pain he’s suffered through for so many years. With Cecelia it’s a different pain, you can see she’s kept it inside for the most part. But she looks almost hollow, you can see how deeply alone she really is. I think Briony is a really interesting and again, really sad character. I see many people hating on her, and yeah I hate her too but she was 13 and very confused on what she saw. For the rest of her life she held that pain, that she destroyed everything. Very sad. I like the ending of her story though.  Lastly I think how the war was shown was done very well. So disturbing and depressing to see but that’s what it was. And along with that how bad hospitals are. I feel like many period pieces where the female characters are nurses it is almost romanticized but this film shows the gross gut wrenching things that they had to face on a daily basis. One of my favorite scenes was when Robbie stands and stares at the french movie, it really emphasizes how far from reality he is. He’s so distanced from the life he once had. That fraction of a time he was in love and happy.  Obviously the music and cinematography were also phenomenal and added so much to this film. If you are brave enough to watch, watch it. It’s really as good as everyone says.