Remember those old farts that wax nostalgic and comment that they don't make movies like they used to in the good ol' days. Well they're full of shit. If this fall season is any indication, movies are not in danger of a decline anytime soon. In fact I would argue they are as good as they ever were, and movies like Atonement make the case that they will be for some time to come.
The most impressive thing about this movie (besides the movie itself) is that it is young cinema. This is only director Joe Wright's second movie and the two stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are in their early twenties. The best performance is by Saorise Ronan who is only thirteen. With life expectancies as high as they are, these people could be making movies for the next fifty years. Isn't that exciting.
Atonement plotwise is a very simple story. A young girl commits grievous harm to an innocent romance. There are two parts and an epilogue. The first takes place in 1935 and consists of the tragic misunderstanding. The second takes place during World War II. The epilogue (The only weak part) is disruptive jump fifty years into the future. I'll talk more about that later. The brilliance of this movie succeeds on the way that this simple story is told.
I call it right now, and I will be very surprised if it doesn't happen, that this movie will get Oscar nominations for Directing, Editing, Original Score, Sound, and Cinematography. It may also get nominations for Costumes, and Best Actress (Keira Knightley). The movie flows in and out sublimely through a mix of clever editing, musical themes, typewriter keystrokes, and superbly choreagraphed film shots. The plot weaves around itself in time and space but it is never explicitly explained to the viewer because the direction does such a good job of relating it subtlely. And there is one long shot, that I'm sure everyone will be talking of, that takes place during the British retreat on Dunkirk beach. It is five minutes long and wowed me with its complexity. Better yet, it works both ways, as a superb piece of technical direction but also an emotionally charged spectacle. This shot alone should gain Wright a nomination for directing.
Knightley and McAvoy are the two leading stars of young British cinema. Here they do a great job. In my eyes, they both matured greatly on screen through this movie. McAvoy especially has a more adult look to him. Knightley continues on her insane streak of good to great movies. Having said that I believe the best performance goes to Saorise Ronan, the naive pretentious little girl. I'll go a little farther and say that her costume direction is the best of any this year. You can tell just by looking at this charachter what she is all about.
Unfortunately this movie has a really weird epilogue tacked onto the end of it. I don't think I should give it away, but it was bewildering to me how so many talented people could make such a great movie and than spring this sort of ending onto it. Just the visual contrast in it was odd. That and the fact that it jumped the movie timeline fifty years and than gave us a fakeout that nullified a good quarter of what we just saw. What they should have done is give us some warning to this sort of thing. A brief snippet of the interview at the very beginning of the movie would have made it all right I believe. That way the surprise wouldn't take us completely out of the story.
Can I give a thumbs down to a great movie because of a bad ending. I choose not too, but do I request that Joe Wright make his next film a true cinematic masterpiece. I am convinced he can and should do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment