Atonement is a 2007 romantic war tragedy film directed by Joe Wright and starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on the 2001 novel by Ian McEwan. The film chronicles a crime and its consequences over six decades, beginning in the 1930s. It was produced for StudioCanal and filmed in England. Distributed in most of the world by Universal Studios, it was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2007 and in North America exactly three months later on 7 December 2007.
Atonement opened both the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival and the 64th Venice International Film Festival. Wright, at age 35, was the youngest director ever to open the Venice event. The film was a commercial success and earned a worldwide gross of approximately $129 million against a budget of $30 million. Critics praised its acting, Wright's direction, Hampton's screenplay, Marianelli's score, emotional depth, the cinematography, editing, visuals, and the film's incorporation of historic events.
Among numerous accolades, Atonement won Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards and was nominated in six other categories including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Ronan), Best Adapted Screenplay. It also garnered fourteen nominations at the 61st British Academy Film Awards, winning both Best Film and Production Design; and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Plot
In 1935 England, 13-year-old Briony Tallis, the youngest daughter of the wealthy Tallis family, spies on her older sister, Cecilia, and the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner, from a window. Cecilia and Robbie argue by the garden fountain, during which Robbie accidentally breaks a vase. Cecilia removes her dress and climbs into the fountain to retrieve one of the broken pieces. Briony, infatuated with Robbie, observes from nearby and misinterprets the relationship between them.
Robbie writes Cecilia a note in apology. In one draft, he graphically describes his attraction to her, and unintentionally places this draft in the envelope, which he has Briony deliver to Cecilia. She reads it before giving it to her sister and is shocked by the content. Later, Briony describes the note to her 15-year-old cousin Lola, evacuated to their estate with her brothers, who calls Robbie a "sex maniac". Meanwhile, Paul Marshall, a visiting friend of Briony and Cecilia's older brother Leon, introduces himself to their visiting cousins, including Lola.
Before dinner, Robbie apologises to Cecilia for the obscene letter, but she confesses her love for him. They secretly have sex in the library, which Briony witnesses, causing her to mistakenly think her sister is being raped. During dinner, Lola's twin brothers go missing, and the household organises search parties around the grounds. In the dark, Briony comes across Lola being raped by a man who flees. Despite not seeing him clearly, Briony insists it was Robbie; a confused and traumatised Lola does not dissent. After locating the twins, Robbie is arrested for the rape despite Cecilia's pleas of his innocence. Lola and Briony's testimony, along with her turning over the explicit letter, convinces everyone but Cecilia of his guilt.
Four years later, during the Second World War, Robbie is drafted from prison. Joining the army, he fights in the Battle of France. Separated from his unit, Robbie makes his way on foot to Dunkirk, thinking back to six months earlier when he met Cecilia, now a nurse. Gravely ill from an infected wound and experiencing hallucinations, he awaits evacuation.
Briony, now 18, joined Cecilia's old nursing unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London rather than go to the University of Cambridge. She writes to her sister, but Cecilia cannot forgive her for causing Robbie's arrest and conviction. Learning that Paul Marshall is about to marry Lola, Briony attends the wedding, and realises it was he – and not Robbie – who raped Lola. Briony visits Cecilia to ask forgiveness and suggests correcting her testimony, but Cecilia scornfully says she would be an "unreliable witness". Briony is surprised to find Robbie staying with her sister while on leave, and apologises for her deceit, but Robbie is enraged that she has not accepted responsibility for her actions. Cecilia calms him down, and he instructs Briony how to get his conviction overturned. Briony agrees. When Cecilia suggests that she implicate a former worker on the Tallis estate instead, Briony objects, but is reminded that Lola is now married and cannot testify against her husband.
Decades later, Briony, an elderly and successful novelist, gives an interview about Atonement. The autobiographical novel, her latest, will be her last book, as she is dying from vascular dementia. She reveals that the portion of the book where Robbie and Cecilia are living together and Briony begs their forgiveness is fictitious. In reality, she was never able to atone for her mistake, and Cecilia and Robbie never reunited; Robbie died of septicaemia from his infected wound at Dunkirk, and Cecilia drowned months later during an underground flood in the Balham tube station bombing during the Blitz. She wrote her novel with its happy ending to give the two, in fiction, the happiness they never had on her account. The last scene shows an imagined Cecilia and Robbie together in the house by the sea, which they once intended to visit when they were reunited.
Cast
James McAvoy as Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper with a Cambridge education courtesy of his mother's employer. Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, the elder of the two Tallis sisters. Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis, aged 13, the younger Tallis sister and an aspiring novelist. Romola Garai as Briony, aged 18, now a nurse-in-training. Vanessa Redgrave as older Briony, now a successful novelist. Brenda Blethyn as Grace Turner, Robbie's mother and the Tallis family housekeeper. Juno Temple as Lola Quincey, the visiting 15-year-old cousin of the Tallis siblings. Benedict Cumberbatch as Paul Marshall, Leon Tallis's visiting friend. Patrick Kennedy as Leon Tallis, the eldest of the Tallis siblings. Harriet Walter as Emily Tallis, the matriarch of the family. Peter Wight as Police Inspector. Daniel Mays as Tommy Nettle, one of Robbie's brothers-in-arms. Nonso Anozie as Frank Mace, another fellow soldier. Gina McKee as Sister Drummond. Jérémie Renier as Luc Cornet, a fatally wounded French soldier whom the 18-year-old Briony comforts on his deathbed. Michelle Duncan as Fiona Maguire, Briony's nursing friend at St Thomas' Hospital. Alfie Allen as Danny Hardman, a worker on the Tallis estate.
In addition, film director and playwright Anthony Minghella briefly appears as the television interviewer in the final scene. Minghella died six months after the film was released, aged 54, following cancer surgery.
Production
Pre-production Director Joe Wright asked executive producers, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin, and co-producer Jane Frazer to collaborate a second time, after working on Pride and Prejudice in 2005. He also sought out production designer Sarah Greenwood, editor Paul Tothill, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and composer Dario Marianelli, for the film—all of whom previously worked together with Wright. In an interview, Wright states, "It's important for me to work with the same people. It makes me feel safe, and we kind of understand each other." The screenplay was adapted from Ian McEwan's 2001 novel by Christopher Hampton.
After reading McEwan's book, screenwriter Christopher Hampton, who had previously undertaken many adaptations, was inspired to adapt it into a script for a feature film. When Wright took over the project as director, he decided he wanted a different approach, and Hampton re-wrote much of his original script to Wright's suggestion. The first draft – written with the director Richard Eyre in mind – took what Hampton called a more "conventional, literary approach", with a linear structure, and a voiceover and the epilogue of the older Briony being woven in throughout the entire film instead of only at the end. Wright felt that the original approach owed more to contemporary filmmaking than historical filmmaking, while the second script was closer to the book.
To re-create the World War II setting, producers hired a historian to work with the department heads. Background research included the examination of paintings, photographs, and films, and the study of archives. The war scenes, as well as many others scenes, were filmed on location. Set decorator Katie Spencer and production designer Sarah Greenwood both examined archives from Country Life to find suitable locations for the interior and exterior scenes. Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer, worked closely with Wright on the aesthetics of the visualisation, using a range of techniques and camera movements.
Casting Casting the film was a lengthy process for Wright, particularly choosing the right actors for his protagonists. Having previously worked with Keira Knightley on Pride & Prejudice (2005), he expressed his admiration for her, stating, "I think she's a really extraordinary actress". Referencing her character's unlikeability, Wright commented on Knightley's bravery in tackling this type of role without any fear of how the audience will receive this characterisation, stating "It's a character that's not always likeable and I think so many young actors these days are terrified of being disliked at any given moment in case the audience doesn't come and pay their box-office money to see them again. Keira is not afraid of that. She puts her craft first." As opposed to casting McAvoy, "Knightley was in almost the opposite position—that of a sexy, beautiful movie star who, despite having worked steadily since she was seven, was widely underestimated as an actress." In preparation for her role, Knightley watched films from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve, to study the "naturalism" of the performance that Wright wanted in Atonement.
James McAvoy, despite turning down previous offers to work with Wright, nonetheless remained the director's first choice. Wright was immediately impressed after first seeing McAvoy in a performance at the Hampstead Theatre, commenting that "he was just stunning. You could certainly see the seeds of what he'd eventually achieve...He's a damn good actor, which is the main reason I cast him." Producers met several actors for the role of Robbie, but McAvoy was the only one who was offered the part. He fitted Wright's bid for someone who "had the acting ability to take the audience with him on his personal and physical journey." McAvoy describes Robbie as one of the most difficult characters he has ever played, "because he's very straight-ahead." Further describing his casting process, Wright commented how "there is something undeniably charming about McAvoy". One of the most important qualities that particularly resonated with Wright was "McAvoy's own working-class roots," which McAvoy noted was something that Wright was very much interested in. Once Wright put both Knightley and McAvoy together, their "palpable sexual chemistry" immediately became apparent. The biggest risk Wright took in casting McAvoy was that "The real question was whether the five-foot-seven, slightly built, ghostly pale Scotsman had what it takes to be a true screen idol."