You know how I just posted maybe 4 hours ago my Best Of the Year list in the SG Awards Thread? How I posted it and said was going to watch Atonement right after and that could change my votes? Well it did, and how.
Atonement punched me in the face right from the beginning, and then kept hitting me all over until it blew me away in the last 10 minutes when Vanessa Redgrave shows up and proceeded to give me the final, powerful blow. I even cried.
Directed by Joe Wright, who got me too with his first effort a few years ago with Pride & Prejudice, Atonement tells the story of Briony Tallis, a 13 year old in England pre-WW2 that sees something happen between her older sister Cecilia and the groundskeeper Robbie, takes it the wrong way, and later goes to tell a lie that fvcks them all up for the rest of their lives.
Cecilia is played by Keira Knightley, giving a great performance (though not as not as what she did in P&P, but still amongs the best of the year) as the fast talker, high class and rich girl in love with Robbie, played James McAvoy, who makes an even better job with a look in those blue eyes that expressed a million times more than what was shown about the tragicness of his and Cecilia's love.
Young Briony is played by Saoirse Ronan, and where did she come from, cause she's amazing, especially in the first 10 to 20 minutes when we meet them all and the countryhouse they live in, all show from her perspective.
Romola Garai plays Briony as an 18 year old, also very good, and the before mentioned Vanessa Redgrave plays an Older Briony giving a very moving, true acting class.
Everything about the movie is perfect, from the music and sounds, at times being keystrokes of an old typewright machine or a piano, very loud and according to what's happening in the scene, and the cinematography, from the countryside to the war zone shots, wide and beautiful, especially one when Robbie gets to the Beach of Dunkirk to find the troops to be evacuated from France. The single shot goes for various minutes, passing through the agonizing troops and the view of the sun setting in the horizon. magnificent.
I really did not think that Atonement was going to be this great, or maybe I did, as I am now recalling when the trailer first showed up and I absolutely loved it and couldnt wait to see it. Well, glad I got to do it before the year is over, and to be able to give it the place it deserves at the top amongst the year's best
Atonement punched me in the face right from the beginning, and then kept hitting me all over until it blew me away in the last 10 minutes when Vanessa Redgrave shows up and proceeded to give me the final, powerful blow. I even cried.
Directed by Joe Wright, who got me too with his first effort a few years ago with Pride & Prejudice, Atonement tells the story of Briony Tallis, a 13 year old in England pre-WW2 that sees something happen between her older sister Cecilia and the groundskeeper Robbie, takes it the wrong way, and later goes to tell a lie that fvcks them all up for the rest of their lives.
Cecilia is played by Keira Knightley, giving a great performance (though not as not as what she did in P&P, but still amongs the best of the year) as the fast talker, high class and rich girl in love with Robbie, played James McAvoy, who makes an even better job with a look in those blue eyes that expressed a million times more than what was shown about the tragicness of his and Cecilia's love.
Young Briony is played by Saoirse Ronan, and where did she come from, cause she's amazing, especially in the first 10 to 20 minutes when we meet them all and the countryhouse they live in, all show from her perspective.
Romola Garai plays Briony as an 18 year old, also very good, and the before mentioned Vanessa Redgrave plays an Older Briony giving a very moving, true acting class.
Everything about the movie is perfect, from the music and sounds, at times being keystrokes of an old typewright machine or a piano, very loud and according to what's happening in the scene, and the cinematography, from the countryside to the war zone shots, wide and beautiful, especially one when Robbie gets to the Beach of Dunkirk to find the troops to be evacuated from France. The single shot goes for various minutes, passing through the agonizing troops and the view of the sun setting in the horizon. magnificent.
I really did not think that Atonement was going to be this great, or maybe I did, as I am now recalling when the trailer first showed up and I absolutely loved it and couldnt wait to see it. Well, glad I got to do it before the year is over, and to be able to give it the place it deserves at the top amongst the year's best