Atonement
Was this to be the period drama that raised Keira Knightley's acting profile higher than the English Rose status that she has been afforded by the British media?
Thus far her career has played second fiddle to other feats.
To Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates trilogy.
To Jane Austen's legendary Pride and Prejudice tale.
To almost everyone else in the distasteful adaptation of La Morte D'arthur.
In fact, since Bend it like Beckham, it is hard to find a single role in which she has shone, always seeming to bring an aesthetic quality to the film, yet never executing her potential.
So, in Atonement it is unsurprising to see that she is once again trying her hand at the Upper-Class-Respectabe-Yet-Elegant role that Pirates, Arthur and P+P have thrust upon her. She does it well. Is suitably rude and moody in the right places. She wears a nice green dress, dives into a fountain at just the right time and as a character she is likeable enough for us to share her sympathies. For the mainstream audience she is suitably generic. She gives up her life of privelege to become a nurse, she doesn't shag anyone else, she doesn't become a lesbian. She fits in to the blitz personality as comfortably as that lovely number in the Chanel adverts.
What really lets her down here is the story, the writer and the director. The plot is whimsical, a 1940's scandal and a girls perception which condemns an innocent doctor type to dunkirk warfare. It's all big and blustering. Strong scenes of Dunkirk, soldiers being sick, horses being shot, resistance in cellars, smatterings of educated French and a suitably entertaining ferris wheel. Also a horrible horrible jumping between times, imagined stories and a romance that just doesn't fit.
I will resume
We will resume
We will marry and be without shame.
It's all designed to bring tears to the eyes, but if you can't fall in love with the characters you feel slightly hoodwinked. The twist is there, the main characters die (respectably in a blitz bomb and Dunkirk attack no less) and we are told by the films protagonist that their happily ever after was constructed for a kindness they were never allowed.
Cue tears, the occasional sniff, and (thank god) the occasional scornful laugh. Then credits, curtain call, awards. Generic scenes concocted to stir the emotions.... though if it wins anything at Venice
i will resume
we will resume
my scorn will resume
4/10
good things: clickety click clickety click and Dunkirk
bad things: cliches, the plots, irrelevant jumping around.
Knightley herself: another solid performance, yet she is becoming increasingly the same character. Her next film is called something like The Duchess. It's dull!
Thus far her career has played second fiddle to other feats.
To Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates trilogy.
To Jane Austen's legendary Pride and Prejudice tale.
To almost everyone else in the distasteful adaptation of La Morte D'arthur.
In fact, since Bend it like Beckham, it is hard to find a single role in which she has shone, always seeming to bring an aesthetic quality to the film, yet never executing her potential.
So, in Atonement it is unsurprising to see that she is once again trying her hand at the Upper-Class-Respectabe-Yet-Elegant role that Pirates, Arthur and P+P have thrust upon her. She does it well. Is suitably rude and moody in the right places. She wears a nice green dress, dives into a fountain at just the right time and as a character she is likeable enough for us to share her sympathies. For the mainstream audience she is suitably generic. She gives up her life of privelege to become a nurse, she doesn't shag anyone else, she doesn't become a lesbian. She fits in to the blitz personality as comfortably as that lovely number in the Chanel adverts.
What really lets her down here is the story, the writer and the director. The plot is whimsical, a 1940's scandal and a girls perception which condemns an innocent doctor type to dunkirk warfare. It's all big and blustering. Strong scenes of Dunkirk, soldiers being sick, horses being shot, resistance in cellars, smatterings of educated French and a suitably entertaining ferris wheel. Also a horrible horrible jumping between times, imagined stories and a romance that just doesn't fit.
I will resume
We will resume
We will marry and be without shame.
It's all designed to bring tears to the eyes, but if you can't fall in love with the characters you feel slightly hoodwinked. The twist is there, the main characters die (respectably in a blitz bomb and Dunkirk attack no less) and we are told by the films protagonist that their happily ever after was constructed for a kindness they were never allowed.
Cue tears, the occasional sniff, and (thank god) the occasional scornful laugh. Then credits, curtain call, awards. Generic scenes concocted to stir the emotions.... though if it wins anything at Venice
i will resume
we will resume
my scorn will resume
4/10
good things: clickety click clickety click and Dunkirk
bad things: cliches, the plots, irrelevant jumping around.
Knightley herself: another solid performance, yet she is becoming increasingly the same character. Her next film is called something like The Duchess. It's dull!