Atonement

Saw Atonement last night. The first choice had been Diving Bell and Butterfly but that didn’t open up in our burg. (Next up is the Coen brothers’ new one).

Nothing bad to say about this one. As you can see above it is a beautifully shot film. Everyone seems to smoke and quite fashionably I must say. The cast is great (James MacAvoy, (see below) recently seen in Last King of Scotland is a standout) and the story compelling and misleading in the best way. Its a complicated sequence and the screenwriter, Christopher Hampton (who also wrote The Quiet American), is up to it. (I may now take another go at the book which I found interminable when I tried to read it a few years ago).

A young girl is asked to deliver an explicitly erotic letter from a man to a woman. She opens a reads it and then delivers it but because of what she reads, and then later sees, sets into action a chain of events which lead to a terrible tragedy. Its not one of those understated historical films but passionate and full of life. It has the energy so many of those seem to lack.

What I particularly found attractive about this film was that things happened without being explained. It was so much like experience itself where you witness events that have reasons but reasons unknown to you. Writers often seem compelled to make sure you understand everything you see. Some of what I saw, which was never explained, I think I know the reason for but I’m not sure, and it felt good to be treated as someone who might bring some knowledge to the film, and the understanding that life is as full of questions as it is of answers.