History YMMV / Atonement

** Despite garnering nominations in other parts of the awards circuit, including the UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}}s and the UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe}}s, Creator/KeiraKnightley and Creator/JamesMcAvoy ultimately failed to earn Oscar nominations. Though both categories were especially crowded with talent during the 80th Academy Awards, it doesn't stop fans from complaining that they could have replaced Creator/ElliotPage ''Film/{{Juno}}'' or Creator/JohnnyDepp for ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''.

* ValuesDissonance: A few aspects of Lola's character raise eyebrows. Namely the fact that she's a [[spoiler: rape victim]] who is just used as a plot device, and the story focuses more on the lives ruined [[spoiler: by the false accusation than the fact that a child was raped. Her growing up to marry her rapist is treated more as an inconvenience that she can't testify against Marshall]]. Of course there could be some DeliberateValuesDissonance here, given that Briony was a child in the 1930s. And there is still the fact that, [[spoiler: rape victim or not, Lola ''did'' condemn an innocent man by not speaking up]].

* HilariousInHindsight: The Dunkirk sequence becomes this after Joe Wright's 2017 film ''Film/DarkestHour'', which was ''about'' the events at Britain during the Dunkirk evacuation.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: A good amount of the interviews for the movie were regarding the library tryst.

* IdiotPlot: The plot quite a bit relies on characters making some rather stupid decisions:
** Cecilia knows Briony has an overactive imagination. She's clearly afraid of Briony showing the letter to her mother. You'd think as soon as everyone was looking for the twins, she'd at least take Briony aside and explain the situation. Granted, it's awkward for your little sister to walk in on you having sex, but she also could have at least said something to her after Briony catches her and Robbie in the library instead of silently leaving, thus making Briony confused and ignorant to Cecilia's consent to the encounter.
** Cecilia and Robbie never consider Marshall as a possibility for the real rapist until Briony tells them, even though he was the stranger in the house that night and had showed up at dinner with a scratch to match Lola's bruises. (In an interesting example of similarity, they seem to have settled on Danny Hardman as certainly as Briony settled on Robbie, and based on as little evidence, prompting Robbie to remark that they "owe Able Seaman Hardman an apology.") [[spoiler:Though this is Briony's fictional version of Robbie and Cecilia, it may be true or it may be Briony's imagination.]]

** Nonso Anozie in only his second film is the other soldier Robbie is walking with in France. He too would later be known for ''Series/GameOfThrones'' (as well as ''{{Film/Cinderella 2015}}'', ''{{Series/Zoo}}'' and ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'').

** In the book, the reader is treated to a very harsh portrait of the young Briony in the lead-up to [[spoiler: Lola's rape. Considering this is meant to have been written by her older self, is it a reliable interpretation of events or is Briony's self-loathing and regret making her an UnreliableNarrator? To go even further, writer!Briony doesn't actually know that Marshall was Lola's rapist — or even that Robbie was innocent, only that his and Cecilia's relationship was consensual. Rereading the book is a bit of a MindScrew.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Saoirse Ronan plays someone who sends an innocent man to jail over a rape he didn't commit. Her next role after this was ''Film/TheLovelyBones'', based on a book by Alice Sebold. The latter was a rape victim herself, and later discovered she had sent the wrong man to jail too.

* WhatAnIdiot: The plot quite a bit relies on characters making some rather stupid decisions:
** Cecilia knows Briony has an overactive imagination. She's clearly afraid of Briony showing the letter to her mother. You'd think as soon as everyone was looking for the twins, she'd at least take Briony aside and explain the situation. Granted, it's awkward for your little sister to walk in on you having sex, but she also could have at least said something to her after Briony catches her and Robbie in the library instead of silently leaving, thus making Briony confused and ignorant to Cecilia's consent to the encounter.
** Cecilia and Robbie never consider Marshall as a possibility for the real rapist until Briony tells them, even though he was the stranger in the house that night and had showed up at dinner with a scratch to match Lola's bruises. (In an interesting example of similarity, they seem to have settled on Danny Hardman as certainly as Briony settled on Robbie, and based on as little evidence, prompting Robbie to remark that they "owe Able Seaman Hardman an apology.") [[spoiler:Though this is Briony's fictional version of Robbie and Cecilia, it may be true or it may be Briony's imagination.]]

* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler:Creator/VanessaRedgrave]] as Briony in the present day.

* SignatureScene: The Dunkirk oner. While people had questioned the shooting of the scene as a oner since the single shot adds little to the story (it wasn't supposed to be one, but became one due to time constraints), the result was found to be quite memorable when taken on its own as a cinematic painting of the chaos at Dunkirk. The scene itself ended up being somewhat more famous than the movie itself.