ATONEMENT

“A clever, ambitious, compassionate picture”

The sound of typewriter can be very haunting, used as percussion in this tragic love story; it encapsulates the emotion of the film itself.

Atonement felt like a structurally soft version of Rashomon or Snake Eyes where several same events being seen from different point of view, giving the viewer, a better look on the story. Joe Wright's interpretation of Ian McEwan's Atonement is well paced, taking Keira Knightley from his previous film, Pride and Prejudice, a more cheerful film than this one.

Like the Booker Prize winning novel, pic goes directly to a hot summer’s day in rural southeast England, 1935. As Briony Tallis (Ronan) witness an ordeal between her sister and Robbie Turner (McAvoy), the housekeeper’s son, who’s been raised almost as part of the family but is forever several social notches below them. This meeting is seen from an upstairs window by Briony, who thinks she sees Robbie mistreating her sister.

Shocked by the ordeal and confused child-adult emotions that are only clarified much later in a small flashback which reminds you of Memento’s Christopher Nolan, Briony turns against Robbie. Hardly aware of the consequences, she slanders Robbie for a crime he didn’t commit. What follows is a tragic outcome of one person’s slander.

The flashback and changing of point of view were stylistic techniques used in the novel including metafiction and psychological realism. Cut to several years later, Robbie is now a soldier and Cecilia a nurse, torn apart by war, will their love survive? Or will Briony redeem herself, realizing how grave her false accusation was?

I guess Briony wasn’t wrong at all, after all she was only 13 back then, and those domino effect events (which goes because the invisible hand of fate shows up) wouldn’t be fueled more had Robbie didn’t recklessly type indecent mail to Cecilia. Perhaps the notion that the invisible hands of fate, combined by misinterpretation of facts, is as haunting as the guilt itself.

I like is the cinematic approach, the warm summers during the first half and the stunning one-take uninterruptible evacuation scene at Dunkirk which will make Martin Scorsese jealous. Keira speaks English beautifully, with a grace just like what she did in Pride and Prejudice. This got to be one of the year's best films, although I’m an Indonesian and doesn’t even share the same cultural heritage with this film but the message is universal, how lies and deceit can be very destructive. My favourite best picture nominee.

ATONEMENT

(Focus Film)

Directed by: Joe Wright

Runtime: 123 min

FOURTEEN RADICAL WAYS TO IMPROVE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE IN INDONESIA

Going and watching movies in Indonesia can be very painful, unlike any other country where no 5 year old can watch Saw IV, here, as long as you got the cash, anybody admitted.

1. Strict ban of cellphone, use cellphone signal jammers which neutralize all cellphone signal inside the theatre, it cost much but worth buying. Announce on the screen that handphone signals are neutralized.
2. Stop the film the moment somebody turning on their cell to find out why they had no signal at all...
3. ….have a high resolution CCTV inside the theatre directed at the viewers and zoom in at the culprit who talks or turning the cellphone, stop the ongoing film, display his obnoxious confused face at the screen. Put a title on the picture: PUBLIC ENEMY
4. ….announce via speaker that if the culprit keep doing the same thing during the film, ten Russel Crowe look alike will hush them.
5. ..if there's no Russel Crowe look alike available, hire Jason Statham look alike
6. Ban babies, children, ghosts, pets, senior citizen with weak heart and obnoxious teenagers to watch R Rated flick
7. Electronic polling booth located outside the exit entrance with button ranging from one to five, viewers can insert their ticket piece inside the machine and vote once, one ticket for one vote. Display the end result under the posters everyday.
8. ..if the end result shows that the film suck, the viewers can bring the piece of their ticket and demand 50% refund. The refund was paid by the filmmaker.
9. Dry clean the seats, especially those on the back row.
10. Play the film until the end, do not cut the credit title
11. Unless of natural disaster or mugging, do not make the viewers wait for the 5th reel to come and try to entertain them during intermission with Backstreet Boys's ”I want it that way”
12. Better subtitles with smaller fonts, or for me, no subtitles at all
13. Better treatment of the film, I hate to see the image of Jessica Alba’s two-piece bikini getting a pararel vertical scratch.
14. A clean toilet....