Robbie is engaged in a torrid affair with Cecilia (Keira Knightley), the elder Tallis sister. Younger tween sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) is an aspiring writer. Briony has the uncanny ability to stumble upon scenes that she wasn't supposed to have witnessed, and since her mind is immature, she invariably draws the wrong conclusions.
First, she sees Cecilia disrobe aside from a slip, and dive into the estate fountain. She assumes that Robbie ordered Cecilia to do this, but in fact Cecilia was retrieving part of a valuable vase from the fountain pool. Later, she witnesses Robbie making love to Cecilia against a bookshelf, and assumes he is raping her. Actually, they are having make-up sex.
Finally, she sees a man raping Lola (Juno Temple), an underaged girl, and incorrectly concludes the rapist is Robbie. Her testimony sends Robbie to prison, with only Cecilia and Robbie's mother defending the innocent man.
Five years later, the Nazis have invaded France, and Robbie is released from prison on the condition he joins the Army as a private without any chance for promotion. War is Hell, and Robbie is wounded, but he trudges across France to Dunkirk, where the British military is staging its retreat across the English Channel.
In London, Robbie is briefly reunited with Cecilia. They are visited by Briony (now played by Romola Garal). She is received coldly, even after Briony confesses that her testimony against Robbie was false.
We cut to a scene many decades later. Briony (now played by Vanessa Redgrave) is a terminally ill elderly woman granting an interview to a reporter (Anthony Minghella). Briony states her latest novel is in fact a non-fiction autobiography with an unhappy ending. We learn that Briony's confession to Cecilia and Robbie never took place, since Robbie died at Dunkirk. Cecilia died shortly later when her bomb shelter flooded. Lola's rapist is never accused, and marries Lola once she becomes an adult.
The story is based on a novel by Ian McEwan. Christopher Hampton adapted the novel into the screenplay.
How others will see it. Atonement was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Ronan was nominated for Best Supporting Actresses, and would have been one of the youngest recipients of a competitive Oscar had she won. BAFTA gave the movie 14 nominations, and it took home the biggest trophy, Best Film.
Given its critical reception, the worldwide box office of 130M must have been a disappointment, though the film made money. The user rating of 7.8 (out of 10) is high but not the stuff of the website's Top 250 list. The movie has 300K user votes, an indication of lasting interest.
The user reviews indicate that many have read the McEwan novel, and are pleased with the adaptation. Most viewers find the movie beautiful and moving. There are, of course, critics of the film, including one who correctly observes that the investigation of Lola's rape is far too brief. Some doubt that Robbie would ever write (and not destroy) the "cunt" note to Cecilia, or entrust a love letter to 13-year-old Briony.
How I felt about it. The most obvious flaw of the movie is that the three extraordinary events that Briony witnesses that fateful day in 1935 are increasingly unlikely. There was no urgency to retrieve the vase handle from the fountain. Robbie and Cecilia would not make love in an room in which any of a house full of guests and servants could have entered. The rapist would not have assaulted Lola in an area combed by a dozen or more people searching for the runaway twins. And why would the twins have run away? Is it really so bad being a guest at a posh country estate with a small army of servants?
We do like the casting, the costumes, the sets, the screenplay, and the direction. Actually, most of what is wrong with the movie can be blamed on the story, taken from the source novel.