Atonement
Joe Wright's 2007 Atonement opens with a shot of the home of Briony et al. in miniature -- a replica of the mansion estate where the main characters live and work in England, 1935. The shot pulls back as the keys of a typewriter are heard clacking away (prior to this, the clacks coincide with the appearance of the text on-screen announcing both title and setting of the film -- and the shift from non-diegetic to diegetic sound is the first of many surprises in this cleverly crafted period piece by Wright). Wright's command of the material is as impressive as his work in Pride and Prejudice and as mesmerizing as it would later be in Anna Karenina. Here, the whole of the film, which is "a story about storytelling" (Santas, Wilson, Colavito, Baker 60), is foreshadowed in one subtle pull-back as the camera, focused squarely on the miniature doll-house replica of the homestead backs up to reveal a line of animal play toys, marching in a row away from the house towards some ark-like object off-screen: yet -- as the camera pans -- and here is another reveal -- the "ark" is 12-year-old Briony, whose key tapping is the source of the clackety-clack, and who embodies in her own efforts to be a young playwright the preservation of life, just as Noah did with his building of the ark (symbolic references such as this are dropped like subtle clues, effecting a delightful and intelligent appeal for film-goers yearning for a more mature, thematic and literary approach to cinema). The effort is not wasted here and the effect is one of the most subtle yet engaging hints as to who Briony is and what she will become: her life-long work as an author (which will serve as the substance of Atonement) will be her attempt to preserve or "save" what she herself in her childish innocence and cruelty was half-guilty of destroying.
The film is thus centered on Briony, who is an intensely creative and curious girl in 1935 (with a flair for the dramatic). Her attention is caught by Robbie, the son of a worker on the estate; Robbie is in love with Cecilia (played deftly by Keira Knightley); and it is the fountain one afternoon that their love (displayed antagonistically...
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