Atonement: A Tale of Three Brionys

In my usual quest of writing the proper and extensive review the film deserves and I know I have in me, I wandered over to the hundreds (no joke) of screencaps I took the first night I had the DVD (the first day, obviously)... and let's say by the time this paragraph was written, I had about a hundred-hundred and fifty more. It's one of the most compelling films to watch, especially when you're trying to get enough screencaps, because there never seems to be enough. Needless to say, however strong Elswit and TWBB is in everyone else's eyes, and the ever-looming warfare of the two, McGarvey is most definitely the Cinematography Chloe, I'm telling you now. The oiled and sometimes Gothicly plastic look of the scenes gives the film what it's most known for and will likely be known for through the ages: a visual masterpiece. But to view it as such alone is asinine, and foolish. On my first two viewings, my respect for the screenplay was fueled mostly by the structure of the story, and not the dialogue itself, something I've since realized is false. Everything from the little moments to the big contain the same amount of humanity, depth and overall characteristic brilliance, something not all films can boast, no matter how great. There are some moments I love more than others, and I'd like to mention one: in the attempted apology scene, just before Robbie comes back into the room, Briony (Garai's interpretation) opens her cloak, exposing her uniform and the red of it's interior. I love this because she's opening what she was guarding moments before; showing her sister and the man she destroyed she is willing to take anything and everything they throw at her, bodily injury included, in the hopes that they can see she's truly repentant. And, arguably, Cecilia sees that; if you look closely throughout it, she looks forlorn and hate-filled, but she seems more tender than you'd think. Robbie, on the other hand, turns into a near-homicidal ranting mess, but deservedly so. Each of their reactions to each other makes the scene truly heart-wrenching, even though it was just another lie.

*where the FUCK did that come from?!?!?*
Well, anyway, this post is one of the most massive I've ever done, and I feel it shows how dedicated I am to the most random things. I really wish I could have a link that would off-shoot the post from the main page, like on WordPress and such, but I have no idea how to work that on Blogger. If someone could tell me how (because I know it's not impossible), that'd be excellent. So, this is pretty damn huge, and MAJORLY SPOILER-TASTIC. Which is barely a word, but whatever. Despite the assumed frivolity of this, I feel it's actually pretty appropriate. There are no better words to explain why I love the film than the words of the film itself. So, please, my epic... Atonement: A Tale of Three Brionys...

Briony Tallis, age 13.

"Cee? What do you think it would feel like to be someone else?"

"If you write a story, you only have to say the word 'castle,' and you could see the towers and the woods and the village below, but... in a play, it's... it all depends on other people."

"Well... it's about how love is all very well, but you have to be sensible."

"If you're going to be Arabella, then I'll be the director, thank you very much."

"How awful."

"Cecilia!"

"I've done nothing wrong."

"Yes, I saw him, I saw him with my own eyes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Briony Tallis, age 18.

"There is no Briony."

"I almost jumped out of my skin."

"No. I don't know."

"It's complicated. It's just... it's about a young girl, a young and foolish girl, who sees something from her bedroom window which she doesn't understand, but she thinks she does. I probably won't ever finish it."

"Dear Cecilia. Please don't throw this away without reading it. As you'll have seen from the notepaper, I'm her at St. Thomas' doing my nurses' training. I decided not to take up my place at Cambridge. I decided I wanted to make myself useful. Do something practical. No matter how hard I work, no matter how long the hours, I can't escape from what I did and what it meant, the full extent of which I'm only now beginning to grasp. Cee, please write and tell me we can meet. Your sister, Briony."

"I've never been in love. Oh, I had a crush once, when I was 10 or 11. I jumped into a river to see if he'd save me from drowning. Oh, no. And he did save me. But as soon as I told him I loved him, the feeling sort of disappeared."

I just wanted to post this.
This, the most obvious visual metaphor I've ever seen.
And yet... it completely works.

"Robbie."

"She will soon, I hope."

"Yes."

"Briony. Je m'appelle Briony."

(from memory) "I saw him. I know it was him. I saw him. I saw him with my own eyes."

"I tried writing. You wouldn't answer. I have to talk to you."

"Well, I wanted to see you first."

"No. No. No. Yes. But yes and no."

"Growing up."

"It wasn't Danny Hardman. It was Leon's friend, Marshall."

"I am very, very sorry for the terrible distress that I have caused."

"I am very, very sorry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Briony Tallis, age 77.

"I'm sorry, could we stop for a moment?"

(deep sigh)

"It's my last novel."

"I'm dying. My doctor tells me I have something called vascular dementia, which is essentially a series of tiny strokes. Your brain closes down, gradually you lose words, you lose your memory, which for a writer is pretty much the point."

"So that's why I could finally write the book, I think. I had to. And why, of course, it's my last novel."

"Strangely enough, it would be just as accurate to call it my first novel. I wrote several drafts as far back as my time at St. Thomas' during the War. I just couldn't ever find the way to do it."

"Yes, entirely. I haven't changed any names, including my own."

"No. I had, for a very long time, decided to tell the absolute truth. No rhymes, no embellishments."

"And I think... You've read the book, you'll understand why."

"I got first-hand accounts of all the events I didn't personally witness, the conditions in prison, the evacuation to Dunkirk, everything."

"But the effect of all this honesty was rather pitiless. You see, I couldn't any longer imagine what purpose would be served by it."

"By honesty. Or reality."

"Because, in fact, I was too much of a coward to go and see my sister in June, 1940. I never made that journey to Balham. So the scene in which I confess to them is imagined. Invented."

"And, in fact, could never have happened. Because..."

"Robbie Turner died of septicemia at Bray-Dunes on June the first, 1940, the last day of the evacuation."

"And I was never able to put things right with my sister, Cecilia, because she was killed on the 15th of October, 1940, by the bomb that destroyed the gas and water mains above Balham tube station."

"So... my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for, and deserved."

"And which, ever since, I've... Ever since I've always felt I prevented."

"But what sense of hope, or satisfaction, could a reader derive from an ending like that?"

"So, in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life."

"I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion..."

"But a final act of kindness."

"I... gave them... their happiness."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joined by love.

Separated by fear.

Redeemed by hope.

A film by Joe Wright

ATONEMENT.