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dangermousieJust got back from Atonement.
Wow. Wow. It's heart-breaking, and romantic, and visually incredible.
If this doesn't win Best Picture, I will...I will...nothing of course. But it should.
Oh. Oh. Oh.
I loved the book to pieces and this is the perfect adaptation. This is how you adopt a book.
I liked all the three Brionys (as actresses. I loathe the character with unholy passion) and Keira Knightly was elegant and vivid as Cecilia but the one I ended up thinking about the most was Robbie.
Oh Robbie. Robbie. RobbieRobbieRobbieRobbie.
James McAvoy is incredible as this amazing person, first young and hopeful, and then damaged and through hell but still so good.
I had to go to the ladies' bathroom and cry in private afterwards.
I have talked about the story before, when I was discussing the book so here I will mention just the images, the incredible images, like gorgeous stills to be framed and hung on the wall: the silouette of Cecilia in her deep green dress, or Briony's red cloak, or Robbie standing in front of that old movie, his bowed shadow because he's had too much to be able to bear it.
There are so many scenes: Robbie in France, coming across the dead school-girls, and despite everything he's seen, everything that's been done to him, the sheer decency and humanity, and the look in his eyes as he weeps for them.
You know what strikes me: he and Cecilia are so young. They are ridiculously young in the library, when they are overcome by their newfound love and the sheer giddiness of feelings being reciprocated (when he asks her 'why are you crying?' and she replies 'don't you know?' GUHHH)
Or the surreal things he imagines as his wounds take hold.
That incredible shot going for minutes, at Dunkirk.
The scene in Cecilia's apartment, when he is confronted with Briony. How do you even relate to someone who's ruined your whole life? I love that Cecilia is able to call him back to himself during that scene. He is not the golden boy that he is in the first part, confident and sure. Oh, the scene in the cafe with him and Cecilia, when they meet for the first time in years, because he's been let out for the training: the way his hands shake, and the way her eyes look at his face, relearning him. And how he is so defeated and unsure and oh...Briony's lie took so much from him, from both him and Cecilia. And Cecilia breaking through his terror with the surety of her love.
I love Keira in this. Sometimes she comes as too mannered an actress, a little smug, but not here. Here she is young and passionate and irresistable. I buy the epic love between Robbie and Cecilia, her loving him without seeing him for years, his utter dedication to getting back to her, in part because I am a little in love with Cecilia and Robbie, both, myself.
All the three actresses who portray Briony are excellent: the pale, preternaturary nosy, over-dramatazing child. The curiously colorless young woman, living only through others. Elderly Briony who still hasn't learned her lesson that words are not the same as life, and it's no amendment to create a fictional happily ever after. But I don't want to talk about Bri because I hate her too much.
Was this even coherent?
Here is a fan-made, unspoilery trailer:
Wow. Wow. It's heart-breaking, and romantic, and visually incredible.
If this doesn't win Best Picture, I will...I will...nothing of course. But it should.
Oh. Oh. Oh.
I loved the book to pieces and this is the perfect adaptation. This is how you adopt a book.
I liked all the three Brionys (as actresses. I loathe the character with unholy passion) and Keira Knightly was elegant and vivid as Cecilia but the one I ended up thinking about the most was Robbie.
Oh Robbie. Robbie. RobbieRobbieRobbieRobbie.
James McAvoy is incredible as this amazing person, first young and hopeful, and then damaged and through hell but still so good.
I had to go to the ladies' bathroom and cry in private afterwards.
I have talked about the story before, when I was discussing the book so here I will mention just the images, the incredible images, like gorgeous stills to be framed and hung on the wall: the silouette of Cecilia in her deep green dress, or Briony's red cloak, or Robbie standing in front of that old movie, his bowed shadow because he's had too much to be able to bear it.
There are so many scenes: Robbie in France, coming across the dead school-girls, and despite everything he's seen, everything that's been done to him, the sheer decency and humanity, and the look in his eyes as he weeps for them.
You know what strikes me: he and Cecilia are so young. They are ridiculously young in the library, when they are overcome by their newfound love and the sheer giddiness of feelings being reciprocated (when he asks her 'why are you crying?' and she replies 'don't you know?' GUHHH)
Or the surreal things he imagines as his wounds take hold.
That incredible shot going for minutes, at Dunkirk.
The scene in Cecilia's apartment, when he is confronted with Briony. How do you even relate to someone who's ruined your whole life? I love that Cecilia is able to call him back to himself during that scene. He is not the golden boy that he is in the first part, confident and sure. Oh, the scene in the cafe with him and Cecilia, when they meet for the first time in years, because he's been let out for the training: the way his hands shake, and the way her eyes look at his face, relearning him. And how he is so defeated and unsure and oh...Briony's lie took so much from him, from both him and Cecilia. And Cecilia breaking through his terror with the surety of her love.
I love Keira in this. Sometimes she comes as too mannered an actress, a little smug, but not here. Here she is young and passionate and irresistable. I buy the epic love between Robbie and Cecilia, her loving him without seeing him for years, his utter dedication to getting back to her, in part because I am a little in love with Cecilia and Robbie, both, myself.
All the three actresses who portray Briony are excellent: the pale, preternaturary nosy, over-dramatazing child. The curiously colorless young woman, living only through others. Elderly Briony who still hasn't learned her lesson that words are not the same as life, and it's no amendment to create a fictional happily ever after. But I don't want to talk about Bri because I hate her too much.
Was this even coherent?
Here is a fan-made, unspoilery trailer:
