Atonement
Short description
Atonement is a British drama set in England in the mid-1930s, where the Tallis family lives in comfort on a large country estate. Thirteen-year-old Briony is an imaginative girl who writes plays and dreams of becoming a novelist. She becomes aware of the mutual attraction between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of the family's housekeeper. When a cousin is assaulted, Briony names Robbie as the attacker, though he is innocent. Her accusation sends him to prison and divides the sisters. The story continues into the Second World War, by which time Briony, working as a nurse, is haunted by what she did and wants to tell the truth.
The film is an adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. It was Wright's second feature, following Pride & Prejudice two years earlier. James McAvoy plays Robbie and Keira Knightley plays Cecilia, while three actresses portray Briony at different ages: Saoirse Ronan at thirteen, Romola Garai at eighteen and Vanessa Redgrave at seventy-seven. Brenda Blethyn appears as Grace Turner.
Made for about 30 million dollars, the film took roughly 131 million dollars worldwide. It holds a 7.8 rating on IMDb from around 327,000 votes and a 7.6 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes. The critics' rating stands at 7.6 from 218 reviews, close to both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The plot features Keira Knightley as the elder sister of Romola Garai's character; in real life, Garai is almost three years older than Knightley.
- Emily Watson and Kristin Scott Thomas were considered for the role of Emily Tallis.
- Abbie Cornish was originally cast as the 18-year-old Briony, but dropped out of the project due to her commitment to "The Golden Age" (2007).
- Initially, the film's director, Joe Wright, wanted Keira Knightley to play the role of the grown-up Briony, but she preferred the character of Cecilia from the very beginning. The actress also wanted to finally shake off the image of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood and play, at last, a mature and fully formed character.
- Scenes involving Romola Garai were filmed in just 4 days.
- The film premiered at the opening of the annual Venice Film Festival. 35-year-old Joe Wright became the youngest director in the history of this most prestigious film forum to receive such an honor.
- The small British town of Redcar was used to recreate the French Dunkirk. The local authorities gave the film crew permission to erect a pavilion and place wreckage of a wrecked ship on the beach to create complete authenticity. A number of houses along the coastline were repainted to match the period depicted in the film, and cosmetic changes were also made to the appearance of the cinema and hotel. Once the three-day shoot was completed, everything was returned to its original condition. The total cost of building the set in Redcar amounted to approximately one million British pounds.
- Residents of Redcar were invited to act as extras in the role of British soldiers, each receiving 50 British pounds for their work.
- Some scenes, taking place on the streets of Dunkirk, were filmed in the docks of the British port city of Grimsby.
- Copies of the film were delivered to cinemas under the false title "Saturday," which is the title of Ian McEwan's next novel after "Atonement," though unrelated to it.
- The film was one of the first foreign films to be released in Chinese cinemas on February 22, 2008, after several months of an unofficial ban on the distribution of foreign films in the PRC cinemas.
- The film is based on Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" (2001).
- To better recreate the atmosphere of wartime England, director Joe Wright spent considerable time watching many British films from the 1940s, including "Rebecca" (1940) and "Brief Encounter" (1945). The latter had the most noticeable impact on his work on the project.
- James McAvoy, one of the leading actors in the film, called the screenplay for "Atonement" the best he had ever received.
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