22 Jan 2008

Atonement

Director: Joe Wright

Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn

Awards: Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Original Score, Golden Globe Awards Prize of the Forum for Cinema and Literature, Venice Film Festival Best Adapted Screenplay, Satellite Awards Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Performance by a Youth in Female Role, Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards

Release: 2008-01-22

Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Atonement is a truly well-crafted romantic saga that spans several decades.

Directed by Joe Wright, who helmed the exceptionally fresh interpretation of 2005's Pride and Prejudice, it stars Keira Knightley as an idly rich girl who indulges in a passionate fling with the housekeeper's son (James McAvoy). Unfortunately, Keira's 13-year-old sister (Saoirse Ronan) has a schoolgirl crush on him. So when she discovers them together, Saoirse becomes madly jealous and sets off to accuse James of a horrible crime he did not commit.

This one false accusation would alter the course of their lives forever. What began as an elegant drawing-room drama now turns into a gritty war picture when James ends up fighting in the British army and Keira leaves home to become a nurse. Saoirse, now 18, has also become a nurse to atone for the sufferings she brought on her sister and James.

Adapted from the Ian McEwan's award-wnning novel. Atonement is a story of how words — written or spoken — have the power to make or destroy lives. In this case, one word is enough to set off a chain of events that spells disaster after disaster for the characters. Haunting, heartbreaking and beautifully wrought, it will make you think twice before you open your mouth to tell a lie.