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Atonement (2007 film)

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Atonement
UK release poster
Directed byJoe Wright
Screenplay byChristopher Hampton
Produced byTim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Paul Webster
StarringJames McAvoy
Keira Knightley
Saoirse Ronan
Romola Garai
Vanessa Redgrave
Juno Temple
Benedict Cumberbatch
CinematographySeamus McGarvey
Edited byPaul Tothill
Music byDario Marianelli
Piano solo:
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures (UK)
StudioCanal (France)
Focus Features (US)
Release dates
  • 29 August 2007 (2007-08-29) (VIFF)
  • 7 September 2007 (2007-09-07) (United Kingdom)
  • 9 January 2008 (2008-01-09) (France)
Running time
123 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film UK
LanguagesEnglish
French[1]
Budget$30 million
Box office$129,266,061

Atonement is a 2007 British romantic drama war film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. The film stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in England and France. Distributed worldwide by Universal Studios (with the North American release handled through its Focus Features division), it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007, and in North America on 7 December 2007.

Atonement opened the 64th Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to open the event. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film won an Oscar for the Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and was nominated for six others, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan).[2] At the 61st British Academy Film Awards it won Best Film and Production Design awards.[3]

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 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 becomes still more suspicious of Robbie's intentions.

That evening, Cecilia and Robbie meet in the library, where they finally declare their love for one another and make love. During the act, Briony watches through the partially open door and due to the letter and her young age mistakenly believes that Robbie is raping her sister. 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 teenaged cousin Lola (Juno Temple). Lola claims that she does not know the identity of her attacker, but Briony is certain that it was Robbie, and tells everyone this, including the police, claiming she saw Robbie commit the act. She shows the 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 join 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 the 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 impact of her accusation, later visits Cecilia to apologize to her 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 reveals that the rapist was actually family friend Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch), who was an adult at the time of the rape, and 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. In reality, Robbie actually died at Dunkirk of septicemia while awaiting evacuation, and that Cecilia died a few months later as one of the flood victims in the Balham tube station of the London Underground during The Blitz. Briony hopes that, by reuniting them in fiction, she can give them the happy conclusion to their lives that they have always deserved.

Cast

File:Atonementscreen.jpg
Robbie Turner (McAvoy) and Cecilia Tallis (Knightley)
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,[4] 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".[5]
The elder of the two Tallis sisters.[5] 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).[6] 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."[6] 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.[5]
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."[5] Ronan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
Following Abbie Cornish's refusal, backing out due to scheduling conflicts with Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007),[7] she was obliged to adapt her performance's physicality to fit the appearance that had already been decided upon for Ronan and Redgrave. She spent much time with Ronan, watching footage of her to approximate the way the younger actress moved.[5]
Everyone's ideal to play the oldest Briony,[5] Redgrave was the first approached (although she was not cast until Ronan had been found),[8] 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.[5]
The matriarch of the family. Both Emily Watson[9] and Kristin Scott Thomas[9] were approached to play the role of Emily Tallis before the role went to Walter.
The eldest of the Tallis siblings.
Robbie's mother and the Tallis family housekeeper.
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.
Leon Tallis' visiting friend.
One of Robbie's brothers-in-arms.
Another fellow soldier.
A fatally wounded and brain damaged French soldier whom the 18-year-old Briony comforts on his deathbed.
The Tallis family's handyman
Minghella was an award-winning director and screenwriter. He died suddenly on the same day Atonement was released on DVD.[citation needed]

Production

The film was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in Great Britain and France.[1]

Locations

Original film set, August 2006; Redcar's beach was the site of the Dunkirk beach sequence, and also stood in for Bray-Dunes

Locations for the filming included the seafront in Redcar;[10] Streatham Hill, south London (standing in for Balham, Cecilia's new home after becoming estranged from her family); Stokesay Court near Craven Arms;[11] and Grimsby.[12]

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.[13] This Victorian mansion was built in 1889 by the glove manufacturer John Derby-Allcroft and is still privately owned.[14] 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.[5]

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[15] tracking shot of the seafront as a war-torn Dunkirk and a scene in the local cinema on the promenade.[5]

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.[citation needed]

Release

The film opened the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at 35, the youngest director ever to be so honoured.[16] The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.[17] Atonement was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007,[18] and in North America on 7 December 2007. Worldwide distribution was managed by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions.[1]

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."[19] On other review sites, Metacritic records an average score of 85%, based on 36 reviews.[20]

In Britain, the film was listed as #3 on Empire's 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".[21] 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."[22][23]

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."[24] 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."[citation needed]

Keira Knightley attending the première of Atonement, in Leicester Square, London

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,[25][26] 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.[27]

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."[28]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[29]

Rank Critic Publication
1st Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times
1st Lou Lumenick New York Post
2nd Peter Travers Rolling Stone[30]
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

Box office

The film grossed $US129,266,061.[31] The film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007, and has grossed £11,557,134. It was also given a limited release in North America on 7 December, and grossed $US784,145 during its opening weekend, posting a per-theatre average of $US24,504 in 32 theatres.[citation needed]

Accolades

Won

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.[32][33][34][35][36][37]

Nominated

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.[64][65] The Blu-ray was released on 26 January 2010.[66]

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b c "Academy Award nominations for 'Atonement'". Orcar.com. 23 January 2008. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  3. ^ a b "BAFTA Awards for 'Atonement'". BAFTA.org. 10 February 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  4. ^ "Look who's kissing Keira". DailyMail.co.uk. London. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Behind-the-Scenes of 'Atonement'". WildAboutMovies.com. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  6. ^ a b "Keira Knightley & Director Clashed Over 'Atonement' Character". Starpulse.com. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  7. ^ "'Atonement' Gears Up for Start of Filming". WorkingTitleFilms.com. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  8. ^ "A Modern Version of that Stiff Upper Lip". Close-UpFilm.com. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
  9. ^ a b Bamigboye, Baz (17 March 2006). "Junior pop idols need not apply". DailyMail.co.uk. London. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  10. ^ Hencke, David (24 May 2006). "Redcar scrubs up for starring role". Guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 17 July 2007.
  11. ^ Gritten, David (24 August 2007). "Joe Wright: a new movie master". Telegraph.co.uk. London. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
  12. ^ "Filming locations for 'Atonement' (2007)". IMDb. Amazon.com. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  13. ^ Conway Morris, Roderick (30 August 2007). "Review: 'Atonement' and 'Se, jie' at Venice festival: Love and lust in wartime". International Herald Tribune (IHT).
  14. ^ The original McEwan novel mentions the house as having been built in the same period.
  15. ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (19 December 2007). "5½-minute tracking shot dazzles in 'Atonement'". USA Today. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  16. ^ "Joe Wright: A New Movie Master, by David Gritten". Telegraph.co.uk. London. 24 August 2007. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
  17. ^ "Atonement to Launch Vancouver International Film Festival". CBC News. 12 September 2007. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
  18. ^ "Atonement". Film in Focus. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
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  22. ^ Corliss, Richard; "The 10 Best Movies"; Time Magazine; 24 December 2007; Page 40.
  23. ^ Corliss, Richard (9 December 2007). "Corliss, Richard; "The 10 Best Movies";". Time.com. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
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  66. ^ "Amazon.com: Atonement [Blu-ray (2007)"]. Retrieved 04 April 2012.
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