Miss Interpretation: Review for "Atonement"

The long and somewhat confusing adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, is a masterpiece to behold during the Oscar season. The story of a young girl, Briony Tallis (Oscar nominee, Saorise Ronan, for Best Supporting Actress), who reads a letter that was delivered to her sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley, ravashing as always), by Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) that featured the C-word and blames him for not only being a pervert, but molesting her sister in the library and her friend Lola. What happens: Robbie is sent to prison, but then joins the army during WWII in 1940. Robbie and Cecilia had been very much in love, but have now been torn apart for what the little girl had done 5 years earlier. She becomes a nurse and then tries to talk with her sister. Robbie is stuck in France in the war, desperate to get home to his Cecilia. The ending is not only emotional, but also a bit shocking. Some may feel tired and restles during the film, but the end of the film will completely change your views, as it did mine. In some sequences, it shows what Briony had witnessed, and then what really happen, going with the point of view, though some may find it hard to make the transition, due to no actual notification of change of scene or fashback. The film is very intricately made and is a wonderful watch. Keira Knightley is beautiful, graceful, and brilliant, though she smokes some eleven or twelve cigarettes. Smokey and the Falsely Accused Bandit, I guess. Young Ronan plays her with great ease. McAvoy and Knightley have great chemistry, real spark on film. This is the kind of film, however, that you have to be in the mood to watch. Dario Marianelli wonderful score, which has been nominated for Best Original Score Academy Award, is wildly creative. When Briony is on screen, a piano and a typewriter start playing an intoxicating little tune that, I suppose, symbolizes that something might happen, typewriters are weapons, and/or a reminder of what happened in the beginning of the film. Joe Wright, who previously directed Ms. Knightley in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, has come back to make a masterpiece of 2007.

Grade: A-

Oscar Fight: The Academy Awards Nominations

Here is the complete list of nominees for this year's Oscars.


Best Actor

George Clooney, Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah

Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

Best Supporting Actor

Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War

Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild

Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie, Away from Her

Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Laura Linney, The Savages

Ellen Page, Juno

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There

Ruby Dee, American Gangster

Saoirse Ronan, Atonement

Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Animated Feature

Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

Ratatouille
Brad Bird

Surf's Up
Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Best Art Direction

American Gangster
Art Direction: Arthur Max
Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino

Atonement
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

The Golden Compass
Art Direction: Dennis Gassner
Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

There Will Be Blood
Art Direction: Jack Fisk
Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Roger Deakins

Atonement
Seamus McGarvey

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Janusz Kaminski

No Country for Old Men
Roger Deakins

There Will Be Blood
Robert Elswit

Best Costume Design

Across the Universe
Albert Wolsky

Atonement
Jacqueline Durran

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Alexandra Byrne

La Vie en Rose
Marit Allen

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Colleen Atwood

Best Director

Julian Shnabel
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jason Reitman
Juno

Tony Gilroy
Michael Clayton

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
No Country for Old Men

Paul Thomas Anderson
There Will Be Blood

Best Documentary Feature

No End in Sight
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Richard E. Robbins

Sicko
Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara

Taxi to the Dark Side
Alex Gibney and Eva Orner

War/Dance
Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best Documentary Short Subject

Freeheld
Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth

La Corona (The Crown)
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega

Salim Baba
Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello

Sari’s Mother
James Longley

Best Film Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum
Christopher Rouse

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Juliette Welfling

Into the Wild
Jay Cassidy

No Country for Old Men
Roderick Jaynes

There Will Be Blood
Dylan Tichenor

Best Foreign Film

Beaufort
Israel

The Counterfeiters
Austria

Katyń
Poland

Mongol
Kazakhstan

12
Russia

Best Makeup

La Vie en Rose
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald

Norbit
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Best Original Score

Atonement
Dario Marianelli

The Kite Runner
Alberto Iglesias

Michael Clayton
James Newton Howard

Ratatouille
Michael Giacchino

3:10 to Yuma
Marco Beltrami

Best Original Song

“Falling Slowly” from Once
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

“Happy Working Song” from Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

“Raise It Up” from August Rush
Nominees to be determined

“So Close” from Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

“That’s How You Know” from Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best Picture

Atonement
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers

Juno
Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers

Michael Clayton
Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers

No Country for Old Men
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

There Will Be Blood
JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best Animated Short Film

I Met the Walrus
Josh Raskin

Madame Tutli-Putli
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse

My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Alexander Petrov

Peter & the Wolf
Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best Live Action Short Film

At Night
Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth

Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Andrea Jublin

Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
Philippe Pollet-Villard

Tanghi Argentini
Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans

The Tonto Woman
Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Best Sound Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg

No Country for Old Men
Skip Lievsay

Ratatouille
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers

There Will Be Blood
Matthew Wood

Transformers
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Best Sound Mixing

The Bourne Ultimatum
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis

No Country for Old Men
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland

Ratatouille
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane

3:10 to Yuma
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe

Transformers
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Best Visual Effects

The Golden Compass
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier

Transformers
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Best Adapted Screenplay

Atonement
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton

Away from Her
Written by Sarah Polley

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood

No Country for Old Men
Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

There Will Be Blood
Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Original Screenplay

Juno
Written by Diablo Cody

Lars and the Real Girl
Written by Nancy Oliver

Michael Clayton
Written by Tony Gilroy

Ratatouille
Screenplay by Brad Bird
Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird

The Savages
Written by Tamara Jenkins

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