CinemaNow - Atonement

Atonement, which is getting a wider release this weekend after opening in a handful of theaters, is attracting rave reviews to go along with numerous awards and nominations that were handed out during the past week. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times particularly praises the performance of Keira Knightley and the direction of Joe Wright. Wright, he says, "shows a mastery of nuance and epic, sometimes in adjacent scenes. ... This is one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee." Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times writes an equally ecstatic review of the movie, based on an acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan. "This is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves," Turan writes. Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post echoes the sentiment: "How fitting, somehow, that a novel so devoted to the precision and passionate love of language be captured in a film that is simply too exquisite for words," she comments. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post concludes his review with four words: "One for the ages." A few reviews are not so gushing. Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star, for example, calls it "handsomely tidy and earnestly dull."

McAvoy is amazing in this movie, so it is worth watching for his performance (the scene with just his hands is incredibly moving).Knightley...meh.Her extreme thinness is distracting in a bad way, but when lighting or clothing does not focus on that, she's okay.She's the star, he's the actor.Would have loved the movie due to McAvoy, except I hated the ending.