Atonement (3 stars)
Joe Wright . 122 minutes. Rated R. Keira Knightley , James McAvoy , Saoirse Ronan , Romola Garai . Directed by
Ronan ) witnesses a series of incidents between her older sister Cecilia ( Knightley ) and Robbie Turner ( McAvoy ), the son of the family's housekeeper. Misinterpreting the pair's budding love as something more sinister, Briony, through a series of tragic coincidences, ends up condemning Robbie to prison for a crime he didn't commit. When the film switches perspectives and time frames to focus on Robbie, now a soldier in the war a few years later, it's less effective. Filmmaking skill aside, Wright never quite connects the emotion of the story to his awe-inspiring presentation of it, and that leaves the film beautiful but always just out of reach. Atonement is best in its first third or so, which focuses on a tense day at the English country estate of the Tallis family on the eve of the Second World War. Precocious and self-important 13-year-old budding writer Briony (
Copyright 2008  Las Vegas Weekly
