A quick plug for this excellent movie adaptation of Ian McEwan's fantastic book. Rarely does a great movie follow from a great book but this one may even have added to my grasp of the history and added more interest and pace to what was a fairly slow first 100 pages or so in the novel. The English pre-war country house is evoked perfectly.
And they managed to keep the plot twist, which shocked still even though I knew it might be coming.
There are a few harrowing scenes on the Dunkirk beaches as, for instance, horses which cannot be transported are shot, but although you see human wounds too there is no actual fighting. Likewise in the hospital back in London, as the evacuated wounded are brought in, there is much blood but in the care and concern of the nurses depicted it is all redeemed.
So what is atonement? How do you put big, bad things right? And can a novel ever be that, giving life to a story that needs to be told even if it is fiction?
It's easy to follow, beautifully shot, totally gripping and all over too soon. Go. Now.
3 comments:
VG film.
Gosh - such a warning to check the address line before one fires off that too-hasty e-mail.
And spooky how Briony's swimsuit was bone-dry seconds after the young man had rescued her from drowning.
The part where his mother washed his feet - beautiful.
I haven't read the book but the film was wonderful, characters I liked, anguish that I felt, sadness only slightly tempered by wishful thinking...
atonement, I think not
if only... ah yes, I know, I know
I have seen the film too and what came across for me was the priviledge of the family depicted and how it masked an emotional neglect, leaving the way open for abuse and also the listless kind of boredom and apathy so brilliantly depicted by Keira Knightley.
It was full of imagery. I am fascinated by the word atonement. I wander it seems to have a heavy weighty but yet gentle roll to it as if atonement is a constant process that needs both humanity and deity to work???
Post a Comment