My overly simplistic but intentionally short book review for Atonement posted to LibraryThing was:
Patience. That's what it takes to read the book. It's like reading an epic story seen through just a few fragments. There is a lot of descriptive prose, which is what may test the patience of some of us who need things to keep moving. But it's worth it in the end. Some will say the ending is predictable, but I thought it was a thing of beauty.
I'm tempted to say that Joe Wright's film is superior to Ian McEwan's book. To my recollection, it's a bit more faithful to the book than P&P. As a novel, Atonement is more internalized and introspective, capturing the inner monologue of characters and heavy on description, but Wright has a terrific cast, each capable of conveying a volume with only a look. The advantage of filming such a descriptive book, unlike Pride and Prejudice with its wealth of plot and dialogue, is that there is never a rush to fit all of the story into the film because the visuals can show much more than the words can describe.
While James MacAvoy and Keira Knightley are the focus of the film, we see the story through the eyes of Briony, played by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Romola Garai (who's brilliant as Emma, currently airing on PBS, and a true chameleon, almost recognizable from one role to the next), and Venessa Redgrave in the different time periods. Of course, we know it's the same character because she keeps the same hairstyle for 60 years...an unnecessary contrivance.
The visual style is again an Oscar-nominated achievement (Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design) for this 1935-1940 period piece set in England and France. The incredible scene everyone remembers is the 5 minute-long shot on the beach of Dunkirk that used one camera and 1,000 extras. From imdb.com:
On shooting, Steadicam operator Peter Robertson shot the scene by riding on a small tracking vehicle, walking off to a bandstand after rounding a boat, moved to a ramp, stepped onto a rickshaw, finally dismounting and moving past the pier into a bar.
Dario Marianelli walked away with a win for best score this time. Appropriately, the music is much darker. What really stands out is the percussion of Briony's theme, created by a typewriter.
The most I should say about the plot is that it's about a mistake, followed by a misunderstanding, and a life haunted by the search for redemption. My only small complaint is that I found the final chapter of the book to be much better than its adaptation. Perhaps the key passage to the novel comes 40 pages before the end, but is not fully understood until the last chapter. Wright finds other ways to hint at the same thing through short dream sequences.
(Highlight text for potential minor spoiler)
She left the cafe, and as she walked along the Common she felt the distance widen between her and another self, no less real, who was walking back toward the hospital.
A couple of comments about the Universal discs. Universal/NBC/Sheinhardt Wig/GE is clearly full of themselves and want to leave no doubt you're watching one of their films. There are no less than 2 full Universal openings that can NOT be bypassed, a Universal screen saver if you pause the film, and as the film loaded, it hijacked my internet connection to download a Winter Olympics on NBC commercial that thankfully could be skipped.
Since both of these titles were released on HD-DVD, the only question remaining is why it took them so long to be released on Blu-ray?
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