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Atonement (2007 film)

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Atonement
File:Atonement poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoe Wright[1]
Written byNovel:
Ian McEwan
Screenplay:
Christopher Hampton
Produced byTim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Paul Webster[1]
StarringJames McAvoy
Keira Knightley
Saoirse Ronan
Romola Garai
Vanessa Redgrave
CinematographySeamus McGarvey[1]
Edited byPaul Tothill[1]
Music byDario Marianelli[1]
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Focus Features (USA)
Studio Canal (France)
Release dates
 United Kingdom September 7, 2007
 United States December 7, 2007
Running time
123 min.
CountriesUK
France [1]
LanguagesEnglish
French[1]
Budget$30,000,000
Box office$128,395,584

Atonement is a 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, directed by Joe Wright, and based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in England and France, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. Distributed worldwide by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions, it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007, and in North America on December 7, 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 the Best Film of the Year, and the Production Design award.[3]

Plot

The film comprises four parts, corresponding to the four parts of the novel. Some scenes are shown several times from different perspectives.

Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) is a 13-year-old girl from a wealthy English family and the youngest of three, and an aspiring writer. Her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) is educated at Cambridge University alongside Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the son of their housekeeper (Brenda Blethyn), whose school fees are currently paid by Cecilia's father. Though Robbie is headed for medical school soon, he is currently spending the summer gardening on the Tallis estate. It is obvious from the beginning of the film that Briony has a crush on Robbie. Their cousin, Lola Quincey (Juno Temple), age 15, and her younger twin brothers, Jackson and Pierrot (Felix and Charlie von Simson), are currently visiting the family amidst their parents' divorce. Lastly, Leon (Patrick Kennedy) - Briony and Cecilia's brother - brings home a friend named Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch), who owns a chocolate factory that is acquiring a contract to produce army rations. The Tallis family is planning for a special dinner, to which Leon happily invites Robbie (who accepts, much to Cecilia's annoyance).

Briony has just finished writing a play titled The Trials of Arabella, which she describes as about "the complications of love". However, her cousins are being difficult with regard to staging the play, much to her frustration. Alone in her bedroom, she happens to witness a significant moment of sexual tension between Robbie and her sister by the fountain, when her sister strips down to her underwear and dips into the fountain, to retrieve the lost part of a broken vase. She mistakes the sexual tension between the two for Robbie almost assaulting her sister. Shortly later Robbie writes drafts of apology letters to Cecilia, including one very explicit erotically charged version which included the word "cunt". On his way to join the Tallis family celebration, he asks Briony to deliver his letter only to realize too late that it is the erotic note he had not intended Cecilia to read. Briony secretly reads the letter and becomes even more suspicious of Robbie's intentions. When Cecilia reads the letter she is not offended and is somewhat elated, though she is angry and embarrassed that Briony has opened it.

That evening Briony encounters Cecilia and Robbie again; this time they are secluded in the library, where they have sex for the first time. However, the naive Briony witnesses the two in the throes of lovemaking and this scares her into thinking Robbie raped Cecilia. At dinner (where Robbie and Cecilia secretly caress hands under the table) Briony is verbally aggressive towards Robbie but is cut off short when her mother (Harriet Walter) tells Briony to fetch the twins. Briony finds a note on their bed saying that they are running away back home and immediately the family members split up to search for the twins on the very large estate. As Briony goes off alone into the darkness to find them, she stumbles upon a man in a dinner suit raping Lola. Though Lola - apparently traumatized - claims not to know who her attacker was (since he covered her eyes) Briony witnesses the event. Back at the estate the police have been contacted. Briony insists that she "knows who did it"; that is, who raped Lola. She tells everyone that it was Robbie. Everyone now believes the attacker to be Robbie, while Cecilia strongly refuses to believe he is guilty. Robbie later returns from the search, with the twins safely in tow, and is arrested and sent to prison.

The story then moves ahead three and a half years, to the opening phases of the Second World War. Robbie, having been convicted but released from prison on condition that he enlist, as a private in the British Expeditionary Force and is hiding in a French attic with two fellow soldiers cut off from their units during the German invasion of France. Although as an ex-prisoner he is not eligible to be a commissioned officer, his leadership skills and ability to speak French and read a map mean that he has taken the lead of his small group; the corporal, who formally outranks him, avoids confusion by addressing him as "guv". Here the dénouement of the rape accusation is shown in dialogue and flashback. Before his deployment, he was reunited with Cecilia in London, where they renewed their love, and he made a promise to return to her. Like Cecilia, eighteen-year-old Briony (now played by Romola Garai) has joined the nursing corps in London, and has tried unsuccessfully to reach her sister. Cecilia has refused contact, blaming Briony for Robbie's imprisonment. It turns out that Cecilia had broken off contact with all her family, since they all believe in Robbie's guilt.

With his two companions, the wounded and very ill Robbie finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he is waiting to be evacuated. He is told that all the soldiers are to leave the next day and falls asleep. Shortly thereafter, at the hospital where she is a probationer nurse, Briony experiences the horror of the evacuation. In one scene, a mortally wounded French soldier (Jérémie Renier (L'Enfant)) dies while she is attempting to comfort him.

File:Atonementscreen.jpg
Robbie Turner and Cecilia Tallis

After seeing a newsreel showing members of the Royal Family visiting Paul Marshall's chocolate factory, Briony attends the wedding of Marshall and her cousin Lola. At this time, Briony has flashbacks of the night when she saw Paul, not Robbie, raping Lola. On that day, Briony summons up the courage to visit Cecilia's flat and apologizes to her directly, recanting her accusation. Robbie, having been evacuated from Dunkirk, emerges from Cecilia's bedroom, awakened by the commotion of their argument, and he angrily confronts Briony. Cecilia calms him, but the couple demand that Briony immediately tell her family and the authorities the truth, so that his name can be cleared. Robbie insists that she write to him precisely what happened, and why she did it, and to give the details to a solicitor. While Cecilia and Robbie assume that a certain servant boy was the culprit, Briony reveals that she knows it was Paul Marshall, who, now having married Lola, cannot be implicated in a court of law by his wife. Briony rides the Underground away from her sister and Robbie to finally tell the truth of the affair.

The film suddenly shifts forward in time to 1999, with an elderly Briony (Vanessa Redgrave) being overcome with emotion and memory. She is being interviewed (by Anthony Minghella) about her latest novel, Atonement, and here reveals that she is dying of vascular dementia, and that this novel is her last, but that she began it first. Briony admits that the story is autobiographical. Briony expresses great remorse towards her actions and explains that she altered the ending in the manner seen in the film to give her sister and Robbie the chance at the happiness they both deserved, and that she felt she stole from them. The film closes with a scene of a simple, joyful moment of Cecilia and Robbie together at long last. The background is taken from a postcard of an English cliff-side beach that Cecilia had once given to Robbie as a promise that they would be together someday.

Cast

  • Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, the elder of the two Tallis sisters.[4] 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).[5] 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."[5] 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 performances in those films that Wright wanted in Atonement.[4]
  • James McAvoy as Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper with a Cambridge education courtesy of his mother's employer. Having refused previous offers to work with Wright, McAvoy was the director's first choice (producers met several actors for the role, including Jake Gyllenhaal,[6] but McAvoy was the only one offered the part), fitting Wright's call for an actor who "had the acting ability to take the audience with him on his personal and physical journey." The actor noted that Robbie was one of the most difficult characters he had ever played, "because he’s very straight-ahead".[4]
  • Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis (age 13), the youngest Tallis sister and aspiring novelist. Twelve-year-old newcomer Saoirse Ronan was not cast until casting director Jina Jay had come across her after many unsuccessful auditions around Great 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."[4] Ronan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
  • Romola Garai as Briony Tallis (age 18):[4] Following Abbie Cornish's refusal, who backed out due to scheduling conflicts with Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).[7] She was obliged to adapt her performance's physicality to fit into the Briony appearance that had already been decided upon for Ronan and Redgrave, spending time with Ronan and watching footage of her to approximate the way the younger actress moved".[4]
  • Vanessa Redgrave as Briony Tallis (age 77): Everyone's ideal to play the older Briony,[4] Vanessa Redgrave was the first approached (although she was not cast until they had found Ronan),[8] committing to the role after one meeting with Wright. Accordingly, she, Ronan, and Garai worked with a voice coach to keep the character’s timbre in a similar range throughout the story.[4]
  • Harriet Walter as Emily Tallis, 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.
  • Patrick Kennedy as Leon Tallis, the eldest of the Tallis siblings
  • Brenda Blethyn as Grace Turner, Robbie's mother, 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, a visiting friend of Leon Tallis and Chocolate Millionaire
  • Danny Mays as Tommy Nettle, a fellow soldier of Robbie
  • Jérémie Renier as Luc Cornet, the wounded French soldier Briony (18) comforts in the hospital
  • Nonso Anozie as Frank Mace, another fellow soldier
  • Anthony Minghella as the Interviewer

Production

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

Locations

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

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, and chosen from the pages of an old copy of Country Life magazine.[13] The Victorian mansion was built in 1889 by glove manufacturer John Derby-Allcroft and is still privately owned (the original McEwan novel mentions the house as having been built in the same period). London locations included Great Scotland Yard and Bethnal Green Town Hall, 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.[4]

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. The scenes of the French countryside were filmed in Coates and Gedney Drove End, Lincolnshire; Walpole St. Andrew and Denver, Norfolk; and in Manea and Pymore, in Cambridgeshire. The scenes shot in Redcar include a remarkably lengthy tracking shot of the seafront as a war-torn Dunkirk and a scene in the local cinema on the promenade.[4]

Another location used in the making of the film was the Lincolnshire Town of Great Grimsby. The Dunkirk street scenes used in the film was of the Grimsby Ice Factory on Grimsby docks. The interior and exterior is present in the film, trailers and the deleted scenes on the DVD.

Release

The film opened the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to be honoured so.[citation needed] The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.[citation needed] Atonement was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 7 September 2007,[14] and in North America on 7 December 2007. Worldwide distribution was managed by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions.[1]

Reception

Critical reception

The film has received positive reviews by the majority of film critics. As of January 18, 2008, the review site Rotten Tomatoes records that 82% of 171 critics gave the film positive reviews, with a consensus that the film's "strong performances, brilliant cinematography, and lovely score make for a very successful adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel." [15] On the other review sites, Metacritic records an average score of 85%, based on 36 reviews.[16] Roger Ebert gave it a four star review saying that the film was "one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee."[17] The film was listed as number 3 on Empire Magazine's top 25 films of 2007. In the movie 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."

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

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."[18][19]

On December 13, 2007 it received 7 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other film nominated for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.[20][21] On January 13th, 2007, the film won 2 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama.

On January 16, 2008, the film received 14 BAFTA nominations for the 61st British Academy Film Awards including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director.

On January 22, 2008, Atonement received 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

On February 4, 2008, it received 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.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[22]

Box office

The film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007 and it has grossed £11,557,134. The film was also given a limited release in North America on December 7, 2007 and it grossed $784,145 in its opening weekend, posting a per-theatre average of $24,504 in 32 theatres. The film has grossed $50,927,067 in the US and $127,852,423 worldwide. shannon[24]

Awards

Wins

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, the New York Film Critics Online, the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.[25][26][27][28][29][30]

Nominations

Home media

Atonement Region 2 DVD was released on February 4, 2008, and the HD DVD edition was released on March 11, 2008. The Region 1 DVD and HD DVD/DVD combo editions (USA/Canada) were released on March 18, 2008.[56][57]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cast, Crew and Production Details at Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ a b c "Academy Award nominations for Atonement". Academy Awards. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2008-01-24. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b "BAFTA Awards for Atonement". BAFTA. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-10. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Behind the Scenes of Atonement". WildaboutMovies.com. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  5. ^ a b ""Keira Knightley & Director Clashed Over Atonement Character"". Starpulse. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  6. ^ ""Look who's kissing Keira"". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
  7. ^ ""Atonement Gears Up for Start of Filming"". Working Title Films (Official website). Retrieved 2008-01-09.
  8. ^ "A Modern Version of that Stiff Upper Lip". Close-UpFilm. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  9. ^ a b ""Junior pop idols need not apply"". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  10. ^ Hencke, David (2006-05-24). "Redcar scrubs up for starring role". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-07-17. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ ""Joe Wright: a new movie master"". Daily Telegraph. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Atonement (2007) - Filming locations
  13. ^ Conway Morris, Roderick (2007-08-30). "Review: 'Atonement' and 'Se, jie' at Venice festival: Love and lust in wartime". International Herald Tribune.
  14. ^ http://www.focusfeatures.com
  15. ^ "Atonement - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  16. ^ "Atonement (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-12-15.
  17. ^ Ebert, Roger. "No Atonement". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessdaymonth= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Corliss, Richard; “The 10 Best Movies”; Time magazine; December 24, 2007; Page 40.
  19. ^ Corliss, Richard; “The 10 Best Movies”; time.com
  20. ^ "Atonement leads field at Globes".
  21. ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards for the Year Ended December 31, 2007". goldenglobes.org. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2007-12-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  23. ^ Travers, Peter, (December 19, 2007) "Peter Travers' Best and Worst Movies of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-20
  24. ^ "Atonement (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  25. ^ 2007 Austin Film Critics Association Awards
  26. ^ 2007 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards
  27. ^ 2007 National Board of Review
  28. ^ 2007 New York Film Critics Online Awards
  29. ^ 2007 Oklahoma Film Critics Association Awards
  30. ^ a b 2007 Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
  31. ^ Best Romance film at Rotten
  32. ^ 2007 Houston Film Critics Society Awards
  33. ^ a b 2007 Golden Globe Awards
  34. ^ a b 2007 International Film Music Critics Awards
  35. ^ Brennan, Steve (2008-02-19). "'Tudors,' 'Garage' top Irish awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-03-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ 2007 Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards
  37. ^ 2007 London Film Critics Circle Awards Results
  38. ^ Nilsson Awards: 6th Annual Nilsson Award Nominees for the Most Outstanding Filmmaking of 2007
  39. ^ 2007 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
  40. ^ 2007 San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
  41. ^ a b 2007 Satellite Awards
  42. ^ 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival
  43. ^ 2007 Art Directors Guild
  44. ^ 2007 American Society of Cinematographers Awards
  45. ^ 2007 British Academy Film Awards Nominations
  46. ^ 2007 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
  47. ^ 2007 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
  48. ^ 2007 Costume Designers Guild
  49. ^ 2007 IFTA Awards
  50. ^ 2007 London Film Critics Circle Awards
  51. ^ 2007 Golden Reel Awards
  52. ^ 2007 Online Film Critics Society Awards
  53. ^ 2007 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards
  54. ^ 2007 USC Libraries Scripter Awards
  55. ^ Focus Features Atonement Awards
  56. ^ DVD Release on The New York Times
  57. ^ Universal official statement for Atonement DVD
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Awards
Preceded by Golden Globe for Best Picture - Drama
2008 		Succeeded by
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Preceded by BAFTA Award for Best Film
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