Atonement (R)

Running Time : 2 hours, 10 minutes
Directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice)
Starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan

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Synopsis:

Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave. Introducing Saoirse Ronan.

Nominated for 7 Oscars, in the categories of Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Original Score.

Golden Globe winner for Best Picture and Original Score.

Atonement spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis and her family live a life of wealth and privilege. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling atmosphere, stoking Briony's vivid imagination.

When she accuses the son of the housekeeper of a crime he did not commit, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.

Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal hails the film as “A singular achievement -- romantic, sensuous, intelligent and finally shattering in its sweep and thematic complexity.”

The film is based on the 2001 novel by Ian McEwan. Time magazine named it the best fiction novel of the year and included it in its All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels.

“It's some kind of miracle. Written, directed and acted to perfection, Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance,” writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone.