One of the sexiest moments of the movie year comes along fairly early in the heart-rending, unpredictable English costume drama “Atonement.”
The scorching clinch against a bookcase between Keira Knightley’s gamine aristocrat in the liquid-emerald satin gown and James McAvoy’s ardent housekeeper’s son with the piercing light eyes gets interrupted by a bitter 13-year-old about to sabotage their love. But it is at that moment that we in the audience become wholly invested in the couple’s future and in today’s incredibly gorgeous period romance.
It begins as an emblematic between-the-wars drawing room tale, a peek at the 1930s-era upstairs-downstairs dynamics at a posh English country manor. Intense younger sister Briony Tallis (the wonderfully frightening Saoirse Ronan) has had a little girl’s crush on handsome Robbie Turner (a yummy McAvoy), who grew up on her father’s estate as a member of the help but has now earned a gentleman’s education at Cambridge. Unfortunately for the disillusioned Briony, who can’t seem to get the attention she wants this weekend, Robbie and her elder sister Cecilia (a luminescent Knightley) are peers who have long held unacknowledged feelings for each other.
The almost pubescent Briony spies Robbie and Cecilia not just once, but twice, in private moments she should not have seen and can’t truly understand. Her jealousy, confusion and precociousness blend in horrific ways.
To tell you what happens next among the characters would ruin the surprising plot twists of “Atonement.” But given its title, you can guess that Briony — next played as an 18-year-old by Romola Garai — has done something for which she needs to make amends. As the scene jolts from rural idyll to harsh reality, the movie transitions into a classically styled World War II picture. Encompassing wartime London and the epic retreat from France to Dunkirk, director Joe Wright (of the most recent remake of “Pride and Prejudice”) captures a familiar cinematic setting to serve the unexpected twists and the askew timeline of Ian McEwan’s original 2001 novel.
Screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons”) adapts the book and maintains the suspense of what happens to the main couple so well that I recommend that you take in as little about this movie as possible before seeing it. It must be mentioned, however, that the cast also includes the magnificent Vanessa Redgrave. But I refuse to tell you what character she plays since her brief but pivotal appearance brings on the film’s devastating ending.
With production design and cinematography to die for, a supporting cast full of splendid faces down to the smallest roles, and an engaging story, “Atonement” makes good in more ways than one.
‘Atonement’
*****
Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy
Director: Joe Wright
Rated R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality
Running time: 122 minutes
