ATONEMENT

ATONEMENT is easily the year's most beautifully filmed movie...in fact...it is one of the most beautifully shot and scored movies ever made. The film's first act is flawlessly directed and edited as a story unfolds through various points-of-view all during one day on a gorgeous London estate. As the film fast fowards to WWII the cinematography and art direction take over. The visual beauty displayed scene after scene is astounding. The reflection of WWII bombers in a small stream, the horrifying discovery of dead bodies in a field, the confession behind a red curtain in a hospital room, the central character walking down a hallway as lights illuminate with each one of her steps, and on and on and on and on. Every single scene seems staged with purpose and beauty. In what is sure to become an all-time classic scene in film history, Director Joe Wright recreates the allied retreat on the beaches of Dunkirk with a stunning and sweeping view of the chaos...its unforgettable. Also unforgettable is the music. Sounds of the film (the clicking of typewriter keys, the pounding of objects and footsteps, etc) are brilliantly incorporated into the score and have a powerful effect. ATONEMENT is flawless in its look and sound, but what it needs, however, is more of that painstaking attention to detail in its script. We should feel more, and care more, about the film's central characters than we do. We should be treated to more personal moments, yet all we get are a few very brief on-screen moments that let you inside the surface beauty of the film. That's not nearly enough. When Vanessa Redgrave takes the screen for the film's final act we get the intimacy we've been longing for...but rather than satisfy us...that brilliant ending confirms in our mind that more of that kind of dialogue from other characters throughout the story would have lifted ATONEMENT to another level. ATONEMENT is an awfully good movie, but it just missed on being a classic. 4 1/2 of 5 hs