random item

Troperville

Tools

Find recent edits by troper:

back to: Main / Atonement

edit article | go to discussion page

7th Apr '13 5:52:21 AM Xtifr

Send Xtifr a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 1,54 (click to see context) from:

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atonement_1770.jpg]]

''{{Atonement}}'' is a 2001 book written by Ian [=McEwan=] about [[LoveHurts love]], [[WarIsHell war]], [[WriteWhatYouKnow writing]], [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone guilt]] and, well, [[TheAtoner atonement]].

It was adapted into a 2007 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film]] of the same name, directed by JoeWright and based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006 in England and France, starring JamesMcAvoy and KeiraKnightley. Distributed worldwide by Universal Studios, with minor releases through other divisions, it was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007, and in North America on December 7, 2007.

''Atonement'' opened the 64th Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of thirty-five, the youngest director ever to open the event. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film won an Oscar for the Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and was nominated for six others, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (SaoirseRonan). At the 61st British Academy Film Awards, it won the Best Film of the Year and the Production Design award.

As for the plot, it's relatively simple. Briony Tallis, a young [[MostWritersAreWriters writer]] thinks her older sister Cecilia is being sexually harassed by her childhood friend Robbie Turner, also the son of her family's housekeeper. The two are in fact considering a consensual relationship. Things get worse through no fault of the couple's.

----
!!This film provides examples of:
* [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Arson, Murder and Jaywalking]]: When Briony is slashing nettles, she attributes to Lola the sins of {{Pride}}, [[VillainousGlutton Gluttony]], [[{{Greed}} Avarice]] and unco-operativeness.
* TheAtoner: Briony. [[spoiler: But only in her book does she make explicit atonement. It's left more ambiguous in real life, where such clean, neat endings are not always found.]]
* BookEnds: The performance of ''The Trials of Arabella''.
* BoxedCrook: [[spoiler:Robbie joins the army rather than stay in prison.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: The actor playing Leon, Cecilia and Briony's brother, believed that Leon and Cecilia's relationship had elements of this; director Wright commented that he wasn't sure he agreed with him on that, and speculated it may have been because so many of Ian [=McEwan=]'s other novels have incest in them. Nonetheless there are a few moments in the film (and another in a deleted scene) that hint at this idea.
* CannotSpitItOut: A lot of the drama would probably have been sorted out if Robbie and Cecilia ''just told her they were in love''.
* CountryMatters: The word is actually a ''plot point'' in both the book and the film.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler:Cecilia's body floating in the flooded underground.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: One would be forgiven to think that Celia and Robbie are the main characters of the film (especially from the promotional materials), but really it's Briony.
* DiedHappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Cecilia and Robby: it's hinted at in the end of the movie, but never stated in the novel]]
* DiesWideOpen: [[spoiler: Nettle doesn't close Robbie's empty eyes.]]
* DistantFinale: A depressing one indeed.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Both Robbie and Cecilia die.]]
* TheEndingChangesEverything: In the book, Briony openly states that [[spoiler:there was no way she could end the story with the lovers dead, so she put in a happy ending]]. She furthermore tells the reader not to wonder what really happened. The movie makes it clear that [[spoiler:Robbie dies of septicemia and Cecilia is killed in a bombing.]])
* FalseRapeAccusation: What drives the plot.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: While working as a nurse during the war, Briony tends to a French soldier wounded in the head. He mistakes her for an English girl he met in his childhood, but [[LetThemDieHappy Briony plays along because she knows he's suffering]]. When he asks if she loves him, Briony says that she does (both the book and the movie makes it clear that Briony truly did, even if it was just for a few seconds). The soldier dies a minute later.
* FootFocus: In the film, Cecilia and Robbie's love scene in the library includes a closeup of her slipping her foot out of her shoe. Supposedly KeiraKnightley used a double for that shot, as she felt her own feet were too unattractive.
* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Both Robbie and Cecilia themselves at the end.]]
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Briony's 'discovery' that Robbie was innocent.]]
* IrrevocableMessage: the obscene letter Robbie accidentally sends to Cecilia.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: The book is narrated by Briony, who considers telling the story to be her [[TitleDrop "atonement"]].
* [[ItsNotPornItsArt It's Not Porn It's Art]]: the rather lengthy [[WallBangHer sex scene]] in the book. Regarding the movie, Joe Wright states the love scene was inspired by a painting.
* MiscarriageOfJustice
* TheOner: The continuous shot on the Dunkirk beaches in the movie. It took three tries, and the cameraman fainted afterward.
* ThePenance
* TogetherInDeath: see DiedHappilyEverAfter
* PerspectiveFlip: Happens a couple of times, with Briony's and Cecilia's viewpoints being shown out of chronological order before intersecting.
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:The assault on Lola]]. Also a case of VictimFallsForRapist, at least in the film (in the book her motives are never explored), with the caveat that [[spoiler:Lola isn't really in love, just pressured to marry Paul and unwilling to admit the truth]].
* [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog]]
* [[spoiler:SnicketWarningLabel: The interview at the end. The story before that was sad enough, but after the interview it's tragic.]]
* TradingBarsForStripes: Robbie is forced to join the army to avoid a prison sentence.
* UnreliableNarrator: Briony. [[spoiler: She is telling the story as a novelist several decades in the future, and (in the film) explains that a divergence from reality began at the Dunkirk evacuation.]]
* {{Uptown Girl}}: Robbie and Cecelia's relationship at the start. 
* WallBangHer: Cecilia and Robbie in the library.
* WarIsHell
* [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{Word of God}} has it that Briony creates such a mess because she's so goodly and so certain of herself. Probably also qualifies as {{Lawful Stupid}}.
* WetSariScene
* WorldWarII
----
<<|{{Film}}|>>

to:

18th Mar '13 7:11:04 PM CarolC

Send CarolC a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 36 (click to see context) from:

to:

13th Mar '13 8:02:11 PM Earnest

Send Earnest a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Added line(s) 44 (click to see context) :

12th Mar '13 5:52:38 AM Craver357

Send Craver357 a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:

to: