Who's going to atone me?
January 23rd 2008 04:30
Atonement (2007)
Drama/ Romance/ War
It’s official. The Academy Awards are rubbish. If you want to know whether you are the best in your field, it is no longer kosher to rely on the Oscars for an answer because they people behind these little gold guys have clearly all lost their minds. I suspected so when Gwyneth Paltrow won an award for Shakespeare in Love, beating out the brilliant Cate Blanchett in 1998. I was almost convinced when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won matching Oscars in 2001 – how perfect, I was even further prompted when Nicole Kidman won for her role as Virginia Woolf (The Hours) in 2002, a role which was fervently and most obviously surpassed by the ever-talented Toni Collette, who appeared in a cameo role in the same film. Did they just have no one else to give it to? Is it really that difficult to perform in a prosthetic nose? Who knows?
In any case, my suspicions of a major Academy Award sell out have now been confirmed with the nomination of Atonement at this year’s soiree. This film has been nominated for a mind boggling seven Academy Awards. Seven! Is the academy giving away an award for ‘Most Outrageous Lips in a Supporting Role’ this year? Because that is the only thing I can imagine this film being nominated for. Best Picture? Pfft! Best Screenplay? I say! Has somebody gone absolutely stark raving mad? This film is rubbish! Hell, even Knightley’s lips have managed to surpass her acting abilities!
If this film serves as any form of advertisement for the novel it is based on, then it is an extremely poor one. I mean, this was a bestselling novel for Christ sakes. And everyone knows one of the golden rules of film/ storytelling is never to cheat the audience. Deceive them, yes, tease them, sure…but writing a script that is the equivalent of a seven-year-old’s ‘and then I woke up and it was all a dream’ idea, is just too insulting to bear. Never mind the fact that this film basically has no subplot (oh wait, there is a war in there somewhere but nothing really happens and no one really cares). In fact, the film reaches its pinnacle within the first thirty minutes or so and then plummets from that point onward.
They should have just called it 'Disappointment', considering that the beginning of the film was quite intriguing and definitely well written. But sentiment soon took the place of good old fashioned story telling and although it was moving at times, it was ultimately unfulfilling. Although, I will say that the library scene between McAvoy and Knightley did make it worth my cashola. In fact, I’d probably buy it on DVD for that single piece of cinema alone. That scene is hot, hot, hot! If only the rest of the film could have provided as much heat.
Despite the terrible story, Saoirse Ronan was very convincing as the young catalyst for disaster, and James McAvoy was so brilliantly doe eyed that I am surprised women weren’t throwing their panties at the screen. But Keira….oh Keira. She is an absolute beauty, I’ll give her that. Perfect features, elegant stature, looks like a spoon; she could switch from actress to Supermodel within the blink of an eye. But her acting skills leave much to be desired, in fact, the more experience she gets; the more her acting skills seem to deteriorate. I believe I liked her best in Bend it like Beckham back in the day when she was young and green. But I do wish she’d give those lips a rest.
Overall, Atonement was beautifully shot yet ultimately unsatisfying. It wanted to be a Romeo and Juliet but sadly we weren’t given enough time with the characters to really identify with them at all, and the character of Briony was as dislikeable when she was an atoned old woman as she was when she was a spoiled, bratty child. If the moral of this story is don’t let your mouth write a cheque your conscience can’t cash, then I need to have a word to the makers of this film.
Poor form, old chaps. Poor form.
Drama/ Romance/ War
It’s official. The Academy Awards are rubbish. If you want to know whether you are the best in your field, it is no longer kosher to rely on the Oscars for an answer because they people behind these little gold guys have clearly all lost their minds. I suspected so when Gwyneth Paltrow won an award for Shakespeare in Love, beating out the brilliant Cate Blanchett in 1998. I was almost convinced when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won matching Oscars in 2001 – how perfect, I was even further prompted when Nicole Kidman won for her role as Virginia Woolf (The Hours) in 2002, a role which was fervently and most obviously surpassed by the ever-talented Toni Collette, who appeared in a cameo role in the same film. Did they just have no one else to give it to? Is it really that difficult to perform in a prosthetic nose? Who knows?
In any case, my suspicions of a major Academy Award sell out have now been confirmed with the nomination of Atonement at this year’s soiree. This film has been nominated for a mind boggling seven Academy Awards. Seven! Is the academy giving away an award for ‘Most Outrageous Lips in a Supporting Role’ this year? Because that is the only thing I can imagine this film being nominated for. Best Picture? Pfft! Best Screenplay? I say! Has somebody gone absolutely stark raving mad? This film is rubbish! Hell, even Knightley’s lips have managed to surpass her acting abilities!
If this film serves as any form of advertisement for the novel it is based on, then it is an extremely poor one. I mean, this was a bestselling novel for Christ sakes. And everyone knows one of the golden rules of film/ storytelling is never to cheat the audience. Deceive them, yes, tease them, sure…but writing a script that is the equivalent of a seven-year-old’s ‘and then I woke up and it was all a dream’ idea, is just too insulting to bear. Never mind the fact that this film basically has no subplot (oh wait, there is a war in there somewhere but nothing really happens and no one really cares). In fact, the film reaches its pinnacle within the first thirty minutes or so and then plummets from that point onward.
They should have just called it 'Disappointment', considering that the beginning of the film was quite intriguing and definitely well written. But sentiment soon took the place of good old fashioned story telling and although it was moving at times, it was ultimately unfulfilling. Although, I will say that the library scene between McAvoy and Knightley did make it worth my cashola. In fact, I’d probably buy it on DVD for that single piece of cinema alone. That scene is hot, hot, hot! If only the rest of the film could have provided as much heat.
Despite the terrible story, Saoirse Ronan was very convincing as the young catalyst for disaster, and James McAvoy was so brilliantly doe eyed that I am surprised women weren’t throwing their panties at the screen. But Keira….oh Keira. She is an absolute beauty, I’ll give her that. Perfect features, elegant stature, looks like a spoon; she could switch from actress to Supermodel within the blink of an eye. But her acting skills leave much to be desired, in fact, the more experience she gets; the more her acting skills seem to deteriorate. I believe I liked her best in Bend it like Beckham back in the day when she was young and green. But I do wish she’d give those lips a rest.
Overall, Atonement was beautifully shot yet ultimately unsatisfying. It wanted to be a Romeo and Juliet but sadly we weren’t given enough time with the characters to really identify with them at all, and the character of Briony was as dislikeable when she was an atoned old woman as she was when she was a spoiled, bratty child. If the moral of this story is don’t let your mouth write a cheque your conscience can’t cash, then I need to have a word to the makers of this film.
Poor form, old chaps. Poor form.
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