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$2.50 Reviews:
Atonement
<img height=400>http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4397/atonementposter.jpg
What a crappy movie.
<spoiler=Other Film Reviews>
The Actual Review Appears Now
No, no, no, no, no. I refuse to believe it. I can't believe it. People must have been lying to me. There is no possible way that Atonement should have gotten as much praise as it did. I can't see any brilliance here. This is a film that deserves to be absolutely destroyed critically, with absolutely no remorse for what I want to say about it.
[Img_Inline width="275" Caption="Lying image. No actual war depicted within film." Align="left"]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3182/atone2.jpg[/Img_Inline]
So...why can't I think of anything particularly bad to say about it? Why am I finding it hard to critique it? Well, the reason for this was because of how much I failed to care about it. Normally, even bad movies can provide some entertainment in one way or another. At least, if they're really bad, you can laugh at everything that's happening, and actually enjoy yourself. That doesn't happen with Atonement.
No, what happens is that you sit in front of the TV for a slight bit longer than 2 hours, and then you come away with nothing, except for a larger disdain for Keira Knightley than you already had. At least, that was my experience with it. Actually, that's not entirely true. When the film was over, and the credits finally began to roll, I was angry.
The reason I felt this was because there was one part of the film that I was enjoying. The second-to-last scene of Atonement was actually very good. I don't feel bad about spoiling it, because out of context, it won't make any sense. So, Vanessa Redgrave's character is talking to a reporter about a novel she's written. She claims that it'll be her last novel, because she is slowly dying due to dementia. She says it is an autobiographical novel, more or less retelling the events that we've seen within the film. I liked this part, because it had a good actor saying things that I felt were interesting.
[Img_Inline width="275" Caption="He broke the handle. Yeah." Align="right"]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7835/atonementp.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Here is where I'll issue a *Spoiler Warning* here, because I'm going to give away the final plot twist of the film. It still won't make sense without having seen the movie first, but if you do choose to watch it, it might ruin your enjoyment of it. Skip the next paragraph if you don't want to find out.
Okay, so, Vanessa Redgrave tells us that a couple of earlier scenes didn't happen, and that two characters were actually dead. Effectively, this means that Atonement uses the "it was all a dream" cliche, albeit in a somewhat different way. It also means that there was no point to showing these scenes, and that they were shown just mislead the audience, so that this final reveal seems like a big twist. No it isn't! It's just a waste of my time! I liked listening to Vanessa Redgrave talk, and then the film pulls this on me. I was fuming.
I suppose having the film make me feel some emotion at the end was better than nothing, because for the previous 2 hours, I felt absolutely nothing. I thought that the film was trying to make me feel something--bad things happen, characters are deceitful, and there are reasons to feel emotional. Or, there would be, if you felt any relation with the characters.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="177" Caption="Using a typewriter must have sucked." Align="left"]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2752/atonement201.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Absolutely none of the characters warranted any sympathy from me. They are all flawed, yes, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, and can actually be very good, but in this case, the characters have no redeeming qualities to make up for this. A large portion of the story revolves around one character lying about something that she saw. This character already was annoying me, and then she does this out of seemingly pure anger at another character. This isn't an endearing character trait, and made me dislike her even if she is mistreated.
If the acting had been good, then maybe Atonement could have been saved. At least good acting is always something you can watch, even if the movie around it is terrible. This isn't the case here, because none of the acting is what I would deem "good". It isn't terrible, and some of the casting decisions, like the aforementioned Vanessa Redgrave were great choices, but the main cast just felt stale to me. The actors were dead-pan serious, despite not being able to pull it off.
I really didn't like Atonement. It was one of the more disappointing films that I've seen, and I didn't even know anything about it going in, meaning I didn't set my expectations very high. It was just a really poor film. The story was boring, the ending angered me, and the characters were dull and unlikable. Almost nothing of the film was of any worth, and save for the one scene that Vanessa Redgrave, I was completely bored while watching it.
If you are a fan of my reviews, and you want to boost my ego receive notifications when new reviews are posted, please join this <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/2-50-Reviews>user group.
$2.50 Reviews:
Atonement
<img height=400>http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4397/atonementposter.jpg
What a crappy movie.
<spoiler=Other Film Reviews>
The Actual Review Appears Now
No, no, no, no, no. I refuse to believe it. I can't believe it. People must have been lying to me. There is no possible way that Atonement should have gotten as much praise as it did. I can't see any brilliance here. This is a film that deserves to be absolutely destroyed critically, with absolutely no remorse for what I want to say about it.
[Img_Inline width="275" Caption="Lying image. No actual war depicted within film." Align="left"]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3182/atone2.jpg[/Img_Inline]
So...why can't I think of anything particularly bad to say about it? Why am I finding it hard to critique it? Well, the reason for this was because of how much I failed to care about it. Normally, even bad movies can provide some entertainment in one way or another. At least, if they're really bad, you can laugh at everything that's happening, and actually enjoy yourself. That doesn't happen with Atonement.
No, what happens is that you sit in front of the TV for a slight bit longer than 2 hours, and then you come away with nothing, except for a larger disdain for Keira Knightley than you already had. At least, that was my experience with it. Actually, that's not entirely true. When the film was over, and the credits finally began to roll, I was angry.
The reason I felt this was because there was one part of the film that I was enjoying. The second-to-last scene of Atonement was actually very good. I don't feel bad about spoiling it, because out of context, it won't make any sense. So, Vanessa Redgrave's character is talking to a reporter about a novel she's written. She claims that it'll be her last novel, because she is slowly dying due to dementia. She says it is an autobiographical novel, more or less retelling the events that we've seen within the film. I liked this part, because it had a good actor saying things that I felt were interesting.
[Img_Inline width="275" Caption="He broke the handle. Yeah." Align="right"]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7835/atonementp.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Here is where I'll issue a *Spoiler Warning* here, because I'm going to give away the final plot twist of the film. It still won't make sense without having seen the movie first, but if you do choose to watch it, it might ruin your enjoyment of it. Skip the next paragraph if you don't want to find out.
Okay, so, Vanessa Redgrave tells us that a couple of earlier scenes didn't happen, and that two characters were actually dead. Effectively, this means that Atonement uses the "it was all a dream" cliche, albeit in a somewhat different way. It also means that there was no point to showing these scenes, and that they were shown just mislead the audience, so that this final reveal seems like a big twist. No it isn't! It's just a waste of my time! I liked listening to Vanessa Redgrave talk, and then the film pulls this on me. I was fuming.
I suppose having the film make me feel some emotion at the end was better than nothing, because for the previous 2 hours, I felt absolutely nothing. I thought that the film was trying to make me feel something--bad things happen, characters are deceitful, and there are reasons to feel emotional. Or, there would be, if you felt any relation with the characters.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="177" Caption="Using a typewriter must have sucked." Align="left"]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2752/atonement201.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Absolutely none of the characters warranted any sympathy from me. They are all flawed, yes, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, and can actually be very good, but in this case, the characters have no redeeming qualities to make up for this. A large portion of the story revolves around one character lying about something that she saw. This character already was annoying me, and then she does this out of seemingly pure anger at another character. This isn't an endearing character trait, and made me dislike her even if she is mistreated.
If the acting had been good, then maybe Atonement could have been saved. At least good acting is always something you can watch, even if the movie around it is terrible. This isn't the case here, because none of the acting is what I would deem "good". It isn't terrible, and some of the casting decisions, like the aforementioned Vanessa Redgrave were great choices, but the main cast just felt stale to me. The actors were dead-pan serious, despite not being able to pull it off.
I really didn't like Atonement. It was one of the more disappointing films that I've seen, and I didn't even know anything about it going in, meaning I didn't set my expectations very high. It was just a really poor film. The story was boring, the ending angered me, and the characters were dull and unlikable. Almost nothing of the film was of any worth, and save for the one scene that Vanessa Redgrave, I was completely bored while watching it.
If you are a fan of my reviews, and you want to boost my ego receive notifications when new reviews are posted, please join this <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/2-50-Reviews>user group.
