chelseachelsea

Too long, too slow and full of painful, dreadful "faux" philosophy. Agree with most of the negative comments on here so wont repeat them. Hilariously this is ranked as number 125 on the IMDb top 250! Ranks above Annie Hall, Kinds Hearts and Coronets, Kill Bill, The Deer Hunter, Ben Hur, Big Lebowski etc etc I think the rating system might be slightly flawed! The effort that has gone in to making this film is remarkable and plaudits must go to costume design and other areas of technical excellence. But what a waste of some brilliant movie making. This was based on a short story which I would like to read but why o why drag the film out for three hours. I guess it's a shoe in for best film Oscar this week

I saw a preview of this film yesterday and felt privileged to be one of the first people to see the film. It was also a pleasure to see a film before reading any other critical review or opinion. I am a great fan of Ian Mcewan and was concerned that it would not be possible to capture the subtleties and nuances of Mcewan's writing but I needn't have had any worries. The director, Joe Wright and screenplay writer Christopher Hampton have done a superb job and the complexities of the novel are superbly captured with real imagination. The story is set in three main areas, an English country house in 1935, war torn France 1940 and London 1940. The atmosphere in of all three are wonderfully captured by the director, cinematographer, costume design and score and I am sure that there are going to be some Oscar nominations for these. James McAvoy as lead man gives a tremendous performance of a restrained but passionate man. I was not as convinced by Keira Knightley's performance and am not sure that her acting has the mature edge to capture the social nuances of the times that McAvoy did so successfully. Do not see this film if you like fast paced films and rapid plot development! This is not a film for the pop video generation. If however you like character development and a plot that unravels at a pace that allows you to be immersed in the atmosphere of the film then I can highly recommend Atonement as one of the best films that I have seen this year.