History Literature / Atonement

* BrotherSisterIncest: Unlike several other of Ian [=McEwan=]'s other novels, this one does not contain any direct incest but even one of the actors in the film version thought the way Cecilia and Leon's interactions may have hinted at this.

* MonochromeCasting: Mace is one of the only nonwhite characters in both the book.

* 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 makes it clear that Briony truly did, even if it was just for a few seconds). The soldier dies a minute later.

For tropes on the film adaptation, see ''Film/{{Atonement}}''.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Robbie and Cecilia [[spoiler:both die in the war, before either getting to be together or Briony attempting to make amends]]. Marshall and Lola [[spoiler:get away with their crimes]], and Briony eventually [[spoiler:gets dementia]].

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

The novel was adapted into a 2007 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film]] of the same name, directed by Creator/JoeWright and based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, starring Creator/JamesMcAvoy and Creator/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. The film 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. It went on to win an Oscar for the Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and was nominated for six others. At the 61st British Academy Film Awards, it won the Best Film of the Year and the Production Design award.

!!This book and film provide examples of:

* AdaptationDyeJob: Briony (played by the blonde Saoirse Ronan) is described as having dark hair in the book. Given that brunette Keira Knightley was the first choice (for the adult version anyway) but chose to play Cecilia, this is presumably to distinguish the sisters.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Both the novel and the film mentions the Balham station disaster (a German bomb was dropped on the road above the station - the tube platforms of which were being used as air-raid shelters - causing the northbound tunnel to partially collapse, flooding both platforms with water and earth from the ruptured water mains and sewers above), but both media get the date of the event wrong: the novel says it happened in September 1940 rather than October 1940, and the film says it happened on 15 October 1940, a day after it happened.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Only at the start. Briony is the blonde and her sister Cecilia is the brunette. When cousin Lola arrives, that gives them a redhead too.

* 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.
* ChekhovsGun: Robbie seen looking at a wound on his chest as he and his two men begin their march. [[spoiler: Foreshadowing the septicaemia that later kills him]].

* 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 Cecelia and Robbie are the main characters of the film (especially from the promotional materials), but really it's Briony.
* DiedHappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Cecilia and Robbie: 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, more explicit in the film, which features Briony being interviewed on TV. [[spoiler: Briony reveals that the whole second half of the story is a lie and that Robbie and Cecilia never got reunited. She's publishing her book on the events, rewriting history to give them a happy ending - before she succumbs to dementia.]]

* 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.]])

* 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.

* TheGhost: The Old Man (the Tallis patriarch) is frequently alluded to, but never seen.

* HairContrastDuo: Immature bratty Briony is blonde, contrasted with mature, open-minded Cecilia who is brunette.
* HairstyleInertia: Briony has the same bobbed hairstyle in childhood and adulthood.
* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Both Robbie and Cecilia themselves at the end.]]

* IAmVeryBritish: As most of the characters are upper class, the actors all posh up their voices considerably. Robbie sports this voice too despite being lower class - as he's brought up around the family.

* [[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.

* LetThemDieHappy:
** [[spoiler:Robbie's last action is to light a match and take one last look at the postcard of the cottage by the beach where he and Cecilia were going to spend time.]]
** Briony tends to a dying soldier who thinks she's his fiancee. She plays along.

* MonochromeCasting: Mace is one of the only nonwhite characters in both the book and the movie.

* TheOner: The continuous shot on the Dunkirk beaches in the movie. It took three tries, and the cameraman fainted afterward. At one point you can see an actor trip and recover.

* RewatchBonus: Robbie's reaction to being told that the wounded will be left behind at Dunkirk. [[spoiler: He's not only badly wounded but dying at that point.]] Also a bizarre scene where Briony looks out a window at an old woman pushing an empty baby carriage. [[spoiler: The narrator is an old childless woman.]]
* SceneryPorn: It's a Joe Wright film; what do you expect? Even the shot of the somber Dunkirk feels more like SceneryGorn than true disarray.
* SexyBacklessOutfit: The emerald green dress Cecilia wears in the library scene.
* SexySoakedShirt: What kicks off the couple's infatuation. Cecilia dives for a vase into a fountain in her clothes.

%%* SnicketWarningLabel: The interview at the end. The story before that was sad enough, but after the interview it's tragic.

* TimeShiftedActor: Briony ages from Creator/SaoirseRonan as a child to Creator/RomolaGarai as a teen to Creator/VanessaRedgrave as an old woman.

* WhatBeautifulEyes: Creator/JamesMcAvoy got the part as Robbie Turner because the character is described as having eyes of optimism, and so does James, according to its director.
-->'''Creator/JoeWright''': He has his eye on a very bright horizon.

* WolverinePublicity: For the official [[http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~nishiken/images/img318.jpg Japanese poster]] and the [[http://images2.static-bluray.com/movies/dvdcovers/96487_front.jpg Canadian DVD artwork,]] Creator/KeiraKnightley is much more noticeable than her male co-star, even though Creator/JamesMcAvoy has the most screen time.

* [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog: Robbie and Cecilia both die in the war, before either getting to be together or Briony attempting to make amends. Marshall and Lola get away with their crimes, and Briony eventually gets dementia. Briony says at the end that she changed the details in her book because she didn't want to tell a story like that: "How could that constitute an ending? What sense or hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account? Who would want to believe that they never met again, never fulfilled their love? Who would want to believe that, except in the service of the bleakest realism? I couldn’t do it to them."]]
* [[spoiler:SnicketWarningLabel: The interview at the end. The story before that was sad enough, but after the interview it's tragic.]]

* 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. The revelation that Briony is the one telling the story calls the accuracy of other parts to question as well; her descriptions about the thoughts and feelings of other people (mainly Cecilia and Robbie) must be based on conjecture.]]

* WolverinePublicity: For the official [[http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~nishiken/images/img318.jpg Japanese poster]] and the [[http://images2.static-bluray.com/movies/dvdcovers/96487_front.jpg Canadian DVD artwork,]][[note]]which incorrectly lists Knightley's name first[[/note]] Creator/KeiraKnightley is much more noticeable than her male co-star, even though Creator/JamesMcAvoy has the most screen time.

* 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.]]

* [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog: Robbie and Cecilia both die in the war, before either getting to be together or Briony attempting to make amends. Marshall and Lola get away with their crimes, and Briony eventually gets dementia. Briony says at the end that she changed the details because she didn't want to tell a story like that: "How could that constitute an ending? What sense or hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account? Who would want to believe that they never met again, never fulfilled their love? Who would want to believe that, except in the service of the bleakest realism? I couldn’t do it to them."]]

* [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog: Robbie and Cecilia both die in the war, before either getting to be together or Briony attempting to make amends. Marshall and Lola get away with their crimes, and Briony eventually gets dementia.]]

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. But the lie she tells leads to lasting, tragic consequences that threaten the happiness of the couple.

It was adapted into a 2007 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film]] of the same name, directed by Creator/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 Creator/JamesMcAvoy and Creator/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. But the lie she tells leads to lasting, tragic consequences that threaten the happiness of the couple.

* MonochromeCasting: Mace is one of the only nonwhite characters in both the book and the movie. Given that the first half of the story mainly focuses on one high class English family, this is semi-justified.

* ThePenance

* [[spoiler:ShootTheShaggyDog]]

* StarCrossedLovers: Not initially. Although Cecilia is higher class than Robbie, he's a friend of the family and it's implied they probably wouldn't have objected to them getting together. [[spoiler: But then Robbie is falsely convicted as a rapist and both of them later die in the war]].

* WarIsHell

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.

* WolverinePublicity: For the official [[http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~nishiken/images/img318.jpg Japanese poster]], Creator/KeiraKnightley is much more noticeable than her male co-star, even though Creator/JamesMcAvoy has the most screen time.

* ChekhovsGun: Robbie seen looking at a wound on his chest hands as he and his two men begin their march. [[spoiler: Foreshadowing the septicaemia that later kills him]].

* ChekhovsGun: Robbie seen looking at blood on his hands as he and his two men begin their march. [[spoiler: Foreshadowing the septicaemia that later kills him]].

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. Unfortunately for them, [[FromBadToWorse everything goes to hell and stays there.]]

* DistantFinale: A depressing one indeed.

* MamaBear: Robbie's mother assaults the police car after her son is taken away.

* MonochromeCasting: Mace is one of the only nonwhite characters in both the book and the movie.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's not said what becomes of Briony's family after the war. Cecilia breaks off contact with them as soon as she comes of age.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Briony (played by the blonde Saoirse Ronan) is described as having dark hair in the book.

* IrrevocableMessage: the obscene letter Robbie accidentally sends to Cecilia.

* KarmaHoudini: Paul Marshall.

* LetThemDieHappy: [[spoiler:Robbie's last action is to light a match and take one last look at the postcard of the cottage by the beach where he and Cecilia were going to spend time.]]

* MiscarriageOfJustice

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 Creator/JamesMcAvoy and Creator/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.