Dir. Joe Wright, UK, 2007, 123 mins (includes some French with subtitles)
Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan
Review by Carol Allen
Fans of Ian McEwan's novel on which this film is based will not be disappointed. Screenwriter Christopher Hampton has stayed very close to the essentials of the original story whilst solving the problems raised by the book's unusual narrative structure, which had caused some people to say it was unfilmable. Joe Wright's direction is also stunningly good.
The story is told in three different eras: The first and longest is set on a stiflingly hot English summer's day in 1935. The events at the Tallis family's country mansion are initially seen through the eyes of the daughter of the household, 13-year-old Bryony (Ronan), an over-imaginative, inquisitive little girl. As the family prepares for a dinner party that evening, Bryony observes her older sister, Cecilia (Knightley), with her childhood friend Robbie (McAvoy) who, in the course of the day, becomes her lover. It is the false interpretation Bryony puts on these events, accusing Robbie when a young girl is assaulted, which ruins the lovers' lives and is the crime for which Bryony spends the rest of her life atoning.
The second part of the story is set in the Second World War, where the disgraced Robbie, stranded in France, is trying to lead his fellow soldiers back to Dunkirk while Bryony, now a nurse (and played by Garai), is trying to atone for the wrong she did him and her sister. In the epilogue, a clever piece of dramatic rewriting of the novel's resolution, set in the present day, Vanessa Redgrave plays the elderly Bryony, now a successful novelist, who is finally able to write the truth about what happened as she approaches her own death.
Wright, who demonstrated with his first feature film Pride and Prejudice that he is one of the most talented and creative British directors to emerge for some considerable time, confirms that judgement here. He directs with flair and sensitivity. The sequence which takes us along the beaches and streets of Dunkirk , as the soldiers wait for rescue, echoes the ballroom scene from his previous film in that it is filmed in one technically impressive unbroken shot, but evokes a very different emotional impact. He has also drawn fine performances from his actors. Knightley has gained in maturity since she played Elizabeth Bennett. She presents a portrait of an ostensibly cold young woman with iron English middle class control and passion seething beneath the service. McAvoy, as her working class lover whose brains have taken him to university but whose future is snatched away from him by Bryony's lie, is equally impres ive throughout but particularly in the sequences set in France . Young Ronan is an interesting new young talent, dislikeable in her self importance but also touchingly vulnerable in her naïvety, while Garai as her older self gives one of her best performances to date. The scene where she comforts a dying French solder in the hospital is one of the most moving in the film. The supporting roles are impeccably played, including Cumberbatch as the greasy capitalist Marshall, Gina McKee as an old style, strict nursing sister, and Brenda Blethyn as Robbie's mother, housekeeper to the Tallis family. The sense of period in terms of costume, setting and most importantly attitude is impeccable. This is probably one of the best films we're likely to see this year.
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