expiation, reparation, amends
Saw Atonement with my sister on Saturday. To quote a commenter on soniag's journal: "What a gorgeous downer!"
I read the book a year ago and thought it well-written but unsatisfying. I don't always mind a sad ending but I was annoyed by the trick - it felt like a trick - of having Robbie's section and everything outside Briony's viewpoint revealed as just Briony-the-author's imagining of the events. It diminished those sections hugely for me; I'd much rather have taken them at face value as fictional "truth". Plus, I was bored by adult-Briony's family reunion, and highly irritated by Ian McEwan's coy way of patting his own back: having young-woman-Briony's publisher go on and on about how brilliant her writing is, after implying she's showed them the chapters we've just read!
The movie took care of these problems since they cut the scenes I found boring, and the transition to film makes the book's "meta" issues null and void. And it was gorgeous, oh, so gorgeous. Beautiful costumes (that green dress!), settings, cinematography, score - the use of sound effects in the score was remarkably effective. Lead actors both compelling and good to look upon. Supporting cast full of familiar faces as always (it was funny to tell my sister we knew the actor playing Paul Marshall - a man with a great name, Benedict Cumberbatch - from Amazing Grace with Romola Garai and Starter for Ten with James McAvoy). I didn't think the movie had a single bad performance (why is everyone getting attention except Romola? She's always so good!).
Does this add up to a movie I loved?
...No. It was very good, and it made me admire it - made me ooh and ahh and cry - but didn't quite make me love it, somehow. I haven't figured out why.
I read the book a year ago and thought it well-written but unsatisfying. I don't always mind a sad ending but I was annoyed by the trick - it felt like a trick - of having Robbie's section and everything outside Briony's viewpoint revealed as just Briony-the-author's imagining of the events. It diminished those sections hugely for me; I'd much rather have taken them at face value as fictional "truth". Plus, I was bored by adult-Briony's family reunion, and highly irritated by Ian McEwan's coy way of patting his own back: having young-woman-Briony's publisher go on and on about how brilliant her writing is, after implying she's showed them the chapters we've just read!
The movie took care of these problems since they cut the scenes I found boring, and the transition to film makes the book's "meta" issues null and void. And it was gorgeous, oh, so gorgeous. Beautiful costumes (that green dress!), settings, cinematography, score - the use of sound effects in the score was remarkably effective. Lead actors both compelling and good to look upon. Supporting cast full of familiar faces as always (it was funny to tell my sister we knew the actor playing Paul Marshall - a man with a great name, Benedict Cumberbatch - from Amazing Grace with Romola Garai and Starter for Ten with James McAvoy). I didn't think the movie had a single bad performance (why is everyone getting attention except Romola? She's always so good!).
Does this add up to a movie I loved?
...No. It was very good, and it made me admire it - made me ooh and ahh and cry - but didn't quite make me love it, somehow. I haven't figured out why.