Atonement **
Joe Wright, 2007
UK
@ Sycamore Theaters
From the trailer I thought this was going to be a boring, stuffy melodrama, but it was much more formally interesting than I'd expected. I always enjoy the characters interacting in strange ways with the soundtrack, like when Keira Knightley's character plucks the piano string, finishing the (rather atonal) line in the score. And of course you have the constant, rhythmic use of the typewriter clacking. The wedding scene was another nice example of the soundtrack as playful counterpoint to the image onscreen.
At least in my reading of it I thought the portrayal of class was pretty good, particularly at moments like when James McAvoy's upwardly-mobile med student/prisoner/soldier/lover makes some nasty crack about being perceived as only as trustworthy as a servant, even though that's exactly what his parents are. I was prepared to get really excited, a few minutes after Robbie moans at the sight of the French lovers on the movie screen in back of the bar (Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan from Port of Shadows), when I thought we might cut away or pull back to reveal him watching his own life on the same screen, but sadly Joe Wright chose not to take things quite that far. The neverending handheld tracking shot along the beach at Dunkirk just lets the gruesome melancholoy build and build for what seems like forever.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic
Joe Wright, 2007
UK
@ Sycamore Theaters
From the trailer I thought this was going to be a boring, stuffy melodrama, but it was much more formally interesting than I'd expected. I always enjoy the characters interacting in strange ways with the soundtrack, like when Keira Knightley's character plucks the piano string, finishing the (rather atonal) line in the score. And of course you have the constant, rhythmic use of the typewriter clacking. The wedding scene was another nice example of the soundtrack as playful counterpoint to the image onscreen.
At least in my reading of it I thought the portrayal of class was pretty good, particularly at moments like when James McAvoy's upwardly-mobile med student/prisoner/soldier/lover makes some nasty crack about being perceived as only as trustworthy as a servant, even though that's exactly what his parents are. I was prepared to get really excited, a few minutes after Robbie moans at the sight of the French lovers on the movie screen in back of the bar (Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan from Port of Shadows), when I thought we might cut away or pull back to reveal him watching his own life on the same screen, but sadly Joe Wright chose not to take things quite that far. The neverending handheld tracking shot along the beach at Dunkirk just lets the gruesome melancholoy build and build for what seems like forever.
See also: IMDb | Metacritic
Labels: 2 Stars, 2007, Joe Wright, UK
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