Story &Direction
With Pride & Prejudice and now Atonement, director Joe Wright may have just established himself as the new James Ivory (of Merchant/Ivory fame). Wright is a real visionary for the romantic period piece, expertly delivering truly spectacular vistas. From set design to costumes to cinematography, the look of Atonement is at once verdant, welcoming and then startlingly grim. The first half of Atonement, at the Tallis’ country home, is certainly the film’s most defining, peppered by an effective musical score, which uses the sound of a typewriter like a metronome. Through a soft lens, Wright displays the general idleness of summer day at a country home like a sunny, floral motif that belies an undercurrent of sweating bodies, wilting flowers, stagnant pools–and an imminent tragic event. Then, once Wright moves with Robbie into WWII, he actually paints an even more grim view of war then maybe seen before. The one continuous shot of the historical Dunkirk–a French beach on which thousands of British soldiers were forced by the Germans and then waited to be evacuated–is absolutely stunning and surreal. Atonement does drag ever-so-slightly in the middle, especially as Briony trains to be a nurse in London, but overall, this is a film Academy voters eat up with a silver spoon. Expect to be hearing about it in the months to come.
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Acting
But don’t let the little-girl act fool you. As played by the lovely Richards in her debut performance, Lyra is one tough cookie, seemingly unafraid of the confront she faces, including confronting a 12-foot-tall polar bear charging at her, among other things. Much like Daniel Radcliffe before her, the plucky actress is quite a find and should The Golden Compass trilogy continue, she’ll be an indelible part of it. As will Kidman and Craig, as the yin-and-yang parental figures in Lyra’s life–particularly Kidman, who doesn’t stretch much but is effective as Mrs. Coulter. The enchanting lady, whose daemon is a nasty golden monkey that doesn’t talk (fits the character perfectly), really does have ice water flowing through her veins. Also good are Sam Elliott as Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby and Eva Green as the ethereal witch Serafina Pekkala. But the character who makes the biggest impression, both literally and figuratively, is the armored ice bear Iorek Byrnison, an exiled prince from his homeland of Svalbard who is looking for a little retribution. As voiced by Ian McKellen (who else?), Iorek is definitely a force to be reckoned with every time he is on screen. His bear-on-bear battle with the reigning Svalbardian king, who kicked him out, is one of the film’s best moments. Love the character names, too.
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Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Melling,Jasom Boyd, Richard Macklin,Kathryn Hunter
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Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long , Mary Elizabeth Winstead , Timothy Olyphant , Maggie
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Directed by Stephen Sommers
Screenplay by Stephen Sommers
Cast (in credits order)
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