Atonement Information

Atonement is a 2007 British romantic drama war film directed by Joe Wright and based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. The film stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave and chronicles a crime and its consequences over the course of six decades, beginning in the 1930s. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed in England and France. Distributed in most of the world by Universal Pictures, it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007, and in North America on 7 December 2007.

Atonement opened both the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival and the 64th Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to open the latter event. A commercial success, the film earned a worldwide gross of approximately $129 million against a budget of $30 million. Critics gave the drama a positive reviews, praising its acting performances, its cinematography and Dario Marianelli's score. Atonement won an Oscar for Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and was nominated for six others, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Ronan. It also garnered 14 nominations at the 61st British Academy Film Awards, winning both Best Film and Production Design, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture " Drama.

Plot

In 1935, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a 13-year-old girl from a wealthy English family, has just finished writing a play. As Briony attempts to stage the play with her cousins, they get bored and decide to go swimming. Briony stays behind and witnesses a significant moment of sexual tension between her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley), and Robbie Turner, a servant's son (James McAvoy), a man that Briony has a childish crush on. Robbie returns home and writes several drafts of letters to Cecilia, including one that is explicit and erotically charged. He does not, however, intend to send it and sets it aside. On his way to join the Tallis family celebration, Robbie asks Briony to deliver his letter, only to later realise that he has mistakenly given her the prurient draft. Briony secretly reads the letter and is simultaneously disgusted and jealous.

That evening, Cecilia and Robbie meet in the library, where they make love and then confess their love for one another. During the act, Briony watches through the partially open door and her confused emotions about Robbie become heightened. At dinner it is revealed that the twin cousins have run away. Briony goes off alone into the woods looking for them and stumbles upon a man running away from apparently raping her teenage cousin Lola (Juno Temple). Lola claims that she does not know the identity of her attacker, but in a fit of pique the still-wounded Briony tells everyone, including the police, that she saw Robbie commit the act. She shows Robbie's shocking letter to her mother. Everyone believes her story except for Cecilia. Robbie is arrested and sent to prison.

Four years later, Robbie is released from prison on condition that he joins the army. He is assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. He is reunited with Cecilia (who has not spoken with her family since the incident) in London, where they renew their love before he is shipped off to the French front. Briony (Romola Garai), now 18, has joined Cecilia's old nursing corps at St. Thomas's in London because she wants to be of some practical use to society and has given up an offer she received from Cambridge. Her attempts at contacting her sister go unanswered, as Cecilia blames her for Robbie's imprisonment. Later, Robbie, wounded and very ill, finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he waits to be evacuated.

Briony, now fully understanding the consequences of her accusation, later visits the now-married Cecilia and Robbie to apologise to them directly. Cecilia coldly replies that she will never forgive her. Robbie, in a rage that almost becomes physical, confronts Briony and demands that she immediately tell her family and the authorities the truth. Briony admits that the rapist was actually family friend Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch), but that he cannot be implicated in a court of law because he has married Lola.

Decades later, an elderly Briony (Vanessa Redgrave) reveals in an interview that she is dying of vascular dementia, and that her novel, Atonement, which she has been working on for most of her adult life, will be her last. Briony reveals that the book's ending where she apologised to Cecilia and Robbie is fictional. Cecilia and Robbie never saw each other again once he left for war. In reality, Robbie actually died at Dunkirk of septicemia while awaiting evacuation, and Cecilia died a few months later as one of the flood victims in the Balham tube station bombing during The Blitz. Briony hopes that, by reuniting them in fiction, she can give them the happy conclusion to their lives that they had always deserved. The last scene of the movie has Cecilia and Robbie once again together in what could be a fictional plane of existence.

Cast

• James McAvoy as Robbie Turner: Son of the Tallis family housekeeper with a Cambridge education courtesy of his mother's employer. McAvoy, who had refused previous offers to work with Wright, was the director's first choice; producers met several actors for the role, including Jake Gyllenhaal, but McAvoy was the only one offered the part. He fitted Wright's bid for someone who "had the acting ability to take the audience with him on his personal and physical journey". McAvoy describes Robbie as one of the most difficult characters he has ever played, "because he's very straight-ahead".
• Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis: The elder of the two Tallis sisters. 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). 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." 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 performance that Wright wanted in Atonement.
• Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis, age 13: The younger Tallis sister and an aspiring novelist. 12-year-old newcomer Ronan was not cast until casting director Jina Jay came across her following many unsuccessful auditions around 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." Ronan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
• Romola Garai as Briony Tallis, age 18: Following Abbie Cornish's refusal, backing out due to scheduling conflicts with Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), she was obliged to adapt her performance's physicality to fit the appearance that had already been decided upon for Ronan and Redgrave. Redgrave spent much time with Ronan, watching footage of her to approximate the way the younger actress moved.
• Vanessa Redgrave as Briony Tallis, age 77: Everyone's ideal to play the oldest Briony, Redgrave was the first approached (although she was not cast until Ronan had been found), and committed herself to the role after just one meeting with Wright. She, Ronan and Garai worked together with a voice coach to keep the character's timbre in a familiar range throughout the film.
• Harriet Walter as Emily Tallis: The matriarch of the family. Both Emily Watson and Kristin Scott Thomas 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 and 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: Leon Tallis' visiting friend.
• Daniel Mays as Tommy Nettle: One of Robbie's brothers-in-arms.
• Nonso Anozie as Frank Mace: Another fellow soldier.
• Jérémie Renier as Luc Cornet: A fatally wounded and brain damaged French soldier whom the 18-year-old Briony comforts on his deathbed.
• Alfie Allen as Danny Hardman: The Tallis family's handyman.

Production

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

Locations

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

All the exteriors and interiors of the Tallis family home were filmed at Stokesay Court, Onibury, Shropshire, a location found in the pages of an old copy of Country Life magazine. This Victorian mansion was built in 1889 by the glove manufacturer John Derby-Allcroft and is still privately owned. London locations included Great Scotland Yard and Bethnal Green Town Hall, the 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.

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. Scenes in the French countryside were filmed in Coates and Gedney Drove End, Lincolnshire; Walpole St Andrew and Denver, Norfolk; and in Manea and Pymoor, in Cambridgeshire. The scenes shot in Redcar include a five-minute tracking shot of the seafront as a war-torn Dunkirk and a scene in the local cinema on the promenade.

Another location used in the making of the film was the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby. The Dunkirk street scenes used in the film were shot at the Grimsby ice factory on Grimsby docks. Both the interior and exterior are present in the film, trailers and the deleted scenes on DVD.

Release

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

Box office

The film grossed $129,266,061. The film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007, and grossed £11,557,134. It was also given a limited release in North America on 7 December, and grossed $784,145 during its opening weekend, posting a per-cinema average of $24,504 in 32 cinemas.

Reception

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from film critics. The review site Rotten Tomatoes records that 83% of 196 critics gave the film positive reviews, with a consensus that "Atonement features strong performances, brilliant cinematography and a unique score. Featuring deft performances from James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, it's a successful adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel." On other review sites, Metacritic records an average score of 85%, based on 36 reviews.

In Britain, the film was listed as #3 on Empires Top 25 Films of 2007. The Australian edition of Empire gave it a five-star review, praising Wright's direction in the second half of the film, where he demonstrates "storytelling and technical flair to match his ability with actors". 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."

The American critic Roger Ebert gave it a four-star review, dubbing it "one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee." In the film 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."

A censored and dubbed version of Atonement was shown to an extremely limited audience in North Korea at the Pyongyang International Film Festival in 2008. The Los Angeles Times reported that "Screenings of two British films, "Atonement" and "Elizabeth I: The Golden Age," were so crowded that guards had to bar the doors to prevent gate-crashers."

Top ten lists

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

Rank	Critic	Publication
1st	Kenneth Turan	Los Angeles Times
1st	Lou Lumenick	New York Post
2nd	Peter Travers	Rolling Stone
3rd		Empire
4th	Ann Hornaday	The Washington Post
4th	Joe Morgenstern	The Wall Street Journal
4th	Richard Corliss	Time
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	Michael Sragow	The Baltimore Sun
10th	Noel Murray	The A.V. Club

Accolades

The film has received numerous awards and nominations, including seven Golden Globe nominations, more than any other film nominated at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, and winning two of the nominated Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama. The film also received 14 BAFTA nominations for the 61st British Academy Film Awards including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director, seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and 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. Atonement also ranks 442nd on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

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, New York Film Critics Online, the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.

Home media

Atonement Region 2 DVD was released on 4 February 2008, and the HD DVD edition followed on 11 March 2008. The Region 1 DVD and HD DVD/DVD combo editions (USA/Canada) were released on 18 March 2008. The Blu-ray was released on 26 January 2010.

See also

• Atonement (novel)
• Atonement (soundtrack)