Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
From the award-winning director of Pride and Prejudice comes a stunning critically acclaimed epic story of love. When a young girl catches her sister in a passionate embrace with a childhood friend her jealousy drives her to tell a lie that will irrevocably change the course of all their lives forever. Academy Award® nominee Keira Knightley and James McAvoy lead an all-star cast in the film critics are hailing "the year's best picture" (Thelma Adams US Weekly).System Requirements:Running Time: 123 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE Rating: R UPC: 025193328526 Manufacturer No: 61033285

Amazon.com:
Director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) gives Ian McEwan’s bestselling novel a sumptuous treatment for the screen that should come to be regarded as one of the defining films of the epic romantic drama. Indeed, everything about this film stems from those three words: there is little here that is not epic, romantic, and dramatic, and Atonement is a film that masterfully expresses the overarching sense of adventure and emotion that such stories are meant to convey. In this instance, the story centers around the love story of highborn Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) and housekeeper’s son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy, in a star-making turn), in England shortly before World War II. Despite their class differences, they are powerfully attracted to each other, and just as their relationship begins Robbie is tragically forced away due to false accusations from Cecilia’s younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan). She has a crush on Robbie, too, and after reading a private letter he sent to Cecilia, and then witnessing the first expression of their mutual love but mistaking it for mistreatment, her resentment grows until it leads to her telling the lie that will send Robbie away. Soon World War II breaks out; Robbie enlists and is posted to France, Cecilia is a nurse in London, and Briony, now age 18 and aware of what she has done, tries to atone for her actions--but none of them will be able to get back what they have lost. Knightley and McAvoy are perfectly cast as the young star crossed lovers, and the young Ronan is particularly impressive, but it’s clear that the real star of this film is the director. Wright allows Atonement to revel in every moment of its story and each scene is compelling in its own way, but that now famous extended shot with Robbie on the beach at Dunkirk--filmed in one take and sure to be considered one of the great long tracking shots in film history--is the most memorable moment in this remarkable film. Atonement is an excellent example of what can happen when a great book meets great filmmaking. This is one that is not to be missed. --Daniel Vancini

Stills from Atonement (click for larger image).

Rating : - An Instant Classic
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After seeing it a second time, I think that ATONEMENT should have won the Academy Award as Best Picture of 2007. It is a rich, sweeping production; a touching romantic drama that transports you back to a simpler, albeit more dangerous, time and place.

There is also a surprise, absolutely unforgettable ending.

Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel was adapted to the screen by Christopher Hampton and directed by Joe Wright.

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy play the star-crossed lovers whose lives are destroyed by a vicious lie told by her younger sister, played at different times in the picture by Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave.

With a great film, like ATONEMENT, you see many things in a second viewing that you missed the first time around. For example, the occasional sound of a typewriter on the soundtrack takes on an entirely new meaning, as does a brief scene of McAvoy walking through a field of poppies.

There is also a 5-minute stedicam sequence on the beach at Dunkirk that makes Orson Welles' brilliant opening sequence in TOUCH OF EVIL look like child's play.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)