movie: Atonement

[meganbmoore]

Atonement is an interesting movie.  When it came out, I heard a lot about the romance, but what I heard about it didn't interest me much.  Rich girl falls for servant boy, he gets falsely accused of a crime and sent to jail, they're reunited years later when she's a nurse and he's a soldier.  A perfectly fine story, but one I've seen and read often enough that it alone didn't interest me much.  What interested me was the aspect of the story seen through the eyes of the person who made the false accusation, and her quest to atone for her sins.

When she was a young girl just barely beginning to understand the world, Briony Tallis, because of a series of misunderstandings, ruined the life of Robbie, the family housekeeper's son.  In the first misunderstanding, she sees what appears to be a violent argument between Robbie and her sister, Cecelia.  During the argument, Cecelia strips to her shift in front of Robbie and jumps into the fountain.  When she comes out, she hurriedly dresses and flees into the house.  Later, Robbie asks Briony to deliver a letter to Cecelia.  Briony, already suspicious, reads the letter, and sees that it's full of sexual innuendo and vulgar language.  That night, Briony goes into the family library and sees that Robbie has Cecelia pinned to the wall in a way that seems to incapacitate her, and the two are obviously having sex.

The same night, Briony's two young cousins, staying with the family while their parents are going through a divorce, run away.  While out looking for the boys, she sees their older sister being attacked by a man in a dinner suit.  At the house, Briony announces that she knows who did it, the events of the day having convinced her that Robbie is a bad person.  When the police ask her if she saw the attackers face, Briony states that she has.  She's seen what looked to be violence towards Cecelia from him, read a lewd letter written by him, and seen what appeared to be rape.  She's positive that the man she saw was Robbie.  She did not, however, see his face. But she knows.  So she lies and says she did, positive that the lie doesn't count, because it had to be him.

Except that Briony, though very smart and analytical, is still a child.  She sees the world through the eyes of a child, incapable of understanding what she sees.  And clouding her judgement is her crush on Robbie, and crush she's really too young to even realize she has, and one that makes her see the events through eyes clouded by jealousy.

The violent argument by the fountain was not an argument so much as it was way too much suppressed sexual desire combined with class constraints and Cecelia's pride.  What Briony saw as Robbie violently grabbing Cecelia's arm was his attempt to soothe her.  The letter Briony read was one Robbie wrote to vent his frustrations.  He meant to destroy the letter, but ended up giving it to Briony by accident, instead of the loving letter he meant to give her.  The sex in the library was completely consentual.  But Briony's eyes, knowing nothing of the real story-that the Tallis's paid for Robbie to go to school, and he and Cecelia fell in love while they were at school, and they can't be together now that they're back home-and her suspicion and unknowing jealousy put a dark interpretation on the events.

And so she lies.  As a result, Robbie is branded a rapist and sent to prison, and later joins the army, and Cecelia leaves her family and becomes a nurse in the war.

And years pass and Briony, growing up, comes to realize how very, very wrong she was, becomes a nurse herself, and seeks atonement.

The movie isn't about Robbie and Cecelia's love-though that is, of course, an important factor-but about Briony's quest to make amends for her actions, and Robbie and Cecelia's story is told largely through her eyes.  The movie sets the events up well, showing us things first as they appear to Briony, in the most negative way possible, and then showing us what really happened.

The question of the movie, though, is that:  what do you do when you ruin a life, and realize all your reasons were wrong?  How can you atone for a lie that destroys two lives?  Is it even possible?  And will you ever even be allowed to try?  And the answering of the question is very worth watching.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see the film, but I loved the book. Ian McEwan is one of my favorite authors.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of half curious about the book now, though I suspect it will cross the line to being depressing.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

My mood isn't affected by fiction, so I can't say for sure. But he's not writer of happy stories at all. ^_^;;

[windxalchemist.livejournal.com]

I found this movie to be really interesting.
The worst part for Briony is the fact that she never got to amend for all of it.
It was a really sad way to end the movie. I was like ;A;

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I suspected the ending for a while. There was all the ominous typing, including times where it sounded like someone was pounding the keys, and I think I noticed that there were different accountings of years in between the two parts of the movie. There's also the scene where Robie had a nightmare, and his friend was stroking his brow and kep touching his arm. That is "OMG! Slash!" or "OMG! Sick!" in retrospect you can tell what points Briony changed the story.

But yeah, what makes it tragic (for all 3) is that she never gets to make amends. All she can do is make people think of them as being able to be happy.

[geckophobe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just saw this! I read the book a few weeks back and loved it. (Disclaimer - I'm not a big fiction reader, so my opinion may mean squat): I thought it was so rich and descriptive, and while it wasn't the kind of thing you just can't put down, it was compelling. As you say, it makes you wonder how someone could make up for such a life-altering mistake.
I wouldn't say I felt it was depressing. Maybe bittersweet. But I got the feeling that Briony, while contrite (that's not strong enough, but eh), was always sure of her actions. She did what she thought was right when she was 13, and then she did what she thought was right at 18 and beyond. She didn't let it ruin her, I guess.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't think it was depressing, just very, very sad. I think the movie did a good job of showing why she made such a monumental mistake, and how wrong it was, which just made her inability to make amends that much worse.

[morwen_peredhil]

Loved the book passionately. Found the film very disappointing, mostly due to the Curse of Keira Knightley.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I like Keira Knightley, but I spent the whole thing wishing she'd put on a little weight. That degree of skinny-ness is concerning. Also, I bemoaned her obvious lack of a bra in the green evening gown.

[cheesemon.livejournal.com]

I liked Atonement, but more so for the cinematography and music. I actually didn't like the atonement aspect, because the "romance" between Robbie and Cicilia was so lust-driven and oddball that it seemed doomed to fail anyway. I was hoping that the whole movie would be Briony manipulating everyone for the sake of her story. Child Briony rocks! ^_^

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Robbie and Cecelia were very normal and basic for their character and story types, and never really moved beyond that. I don't think Briony's atonement was for separating them, though, but that she destroyed his life, which also cost her her sister. I was also very frustrated that apparently, neither attempted to explain the letter to her, or said anything to her after the library incident. Even though what Briony did was wholly on her, I can't believe they didn't go "hey, the kid could get the wrong idea from this!"

Really, though, their story was just a tool in Briony's.