Reviews & Quotes

"3.5 stars. Lush and profound."

"3.5 stars. Rich and stirring. The performances are priceless. A lush tale of romance and betrayal."

"3.5 stars! Epic and heart-rending!"

"Thoroughly gripping and also utterly beautiful. The skilled cast is marvelous to watch. Beautifully played by Saoirse Ronan."

"Sumptuous and thoroughly engaging! Much more than a love story. James McAvoy comes into his own. Keira Knightley gives her most mature performance."

"4 stars. A miracle of a film. Delivers a shuddering jolt to the head and the heart. A piercing joy to discover. James McAvoy is tremendous. Saoirse Ronan is astonishing. Vanessa Redgrave is riveting. Every bit as magnificent as Ian McEwan's rich and meticulous novel."

"4 stars. A rare, astonishing success."

"Grade: A. A terrific movie. Emotionally wrenching and beautiful. Lushly and meticulously directed by Joe Wright. Sublime."

"4 stars."

"Grade A. Magnificent. It awakens you to life. Director Joe Wright is a master. He and screenwriter Christopher Hampton thread the film with comedy and romance. The characters become so 'real' they're magical. Atonement has the force and passion of an original vision."

"Atonement fulfulls every wish. It is a brilliant drama, with a touch of irony... and the performances are uncanny. If you like the book you will love the movie!"

"A sweeping wartime romance. A film that is almost too exquisite for words 'Atonement' has achieved that to which every literary adaptation should aspire. Director Joe Wright uses the full cinematic palette of sound, image and performance. A pitch-perfect cast. Keira Knightley is radiant. James McAvoy becomes a bona fide leading man."

"Visually arresting. The end, gives us a poignant, authentic jolt. It will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Vanessa Redgrave is magnificent."

"3.5 stars. Elegantly forceful."

"4.5 stars. A place well worth visiting, and one you won't leave easily behind. Saoirse Ronan is fantastic."

"3.5 stars. Ravishing. It delivers a shattering kick to the solar plexus. Keira Knightley, smoldering with desire, radiates a steamy cool that sets the film's temperature. James McAvoy, radioactive with lust, personifies Atonement's broken heart. Vanessa Redgrave is peerless. Director Joe Wright is an impeccable craftsman in the tradition of David Lean."

"3.5 stars. Lush and lusty. The acting is fervid. The cinematography astounds. The direction is pregnant with meaning. An ending that combines a gasp of surprise with the dam-bursting pathos of a classic romance."

"3.5 stars! Certainly the juiciest wartime romance to come along since 'The English Patient!' Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are just right as the class-crossed lovers. Vanessa Redgrave is brilliant. Saoirse Ronan is scarily effective. Beautiful."

"4 stars. Masterfully adapted. A story of rare beauty, both wrenching and wise. A fine cast."

"Sweeping and ambitious. Impeccably acted. Joe Wright is a born moviemaker. Both he and star Keira Knightley advance on the triumph of 'Pride and Prejudice."

"5 stars. Enormously satisfying. A film that puts viewers on the edge of their seats wanting to know what happens next. Epic."

"4 stars! A triumph! 'Atonement' has all the pleasurable adornments you'd want. James McAvoy and Keira Knightley enlarge our sense of them, much as Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon did so long ago in 'Wuthering Heights.'" Saorise Ronan and Romola Garai are superb. Vanessa Redgrave is infallible."

"Romantic, sensuous and intelligent. The cast is uniformly excellent. As good a film as one could imagine having been made from a great work of contemporary fiction. That's high praise, and only part of the story. This screen version, directed by Joe Wright and adapted by Christopher Hampton from Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, stands on its own."

"4 stars! Fascinates in every moment! Director Joe Wright shows a mastery of nuance and epic. There is a single unbroken shot of the beach at Dunkirk that is one of the great takes in film history. One of the year's best films."

"An amazing story! More surprises than you could imagine! Played with convincing passion by James McAvoy and Keira Knightley."

"4 stars! 'Atonement' dazzles! A sweeping love story. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy couldn't be better, or better matched. Stunningly good."

"Mesmerizing. The chemistry between Keira Knightley and James McAvoy is white-hot. A movie that rewards a second viewing. Mesmerizing."

"Just go! Go for the smokin' hot love story that pits Keira Knightley against James mcAvoy. Go for Knightley's enviable 40's style: the emerald gown, oxford heels, and crimson pout. Go for the sound editing – yes, sound editing - which weaves elements like a tapping typewriter into a magnificent score."

"A rich, old-fashioned love story. A film of layers and surprises. Deeply moving. As directed by Joe Wright from Christopher Hampton's adroit script and acted with fervor by Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, this is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves."

"Rarely has a book sprung so vividly to life, but also worked so enthrallingly in pure movie terms, as 'Atonement,' a smart, dazzlingly upholstered version by Joe Wright of Ian McEwan's celebrated novel. Keira Knightley delivers a star turn – echoed by co-thesp James McAvoy – that's every bit as magnetic. They and Saoirse Ronan drive the movie on the performance side and technicians like director of photography Seamus McGarvey and designers Sarah Greenwood and Jacqueline Durran provide a richly decorated frame."

"James McAvoy is revelatory. He delivers one of the most seamless, devastating performances of the year. He makes his character complex – vulnerable but scrappy, entitled but humble, lighthearted but intense."

"Each period in the film packs a seismic revelation; the ultimate one is both devastating and cleansing. A wise, beautifully acted parable of vengeance and contrition."

"The most achingly romantic movie since "Titanic.' Stupendous performances, stupendous directing, stupendous writing, stupendous production values and the most dazzling twist ending since 'The Sixth Sense.' I can't think of anything in the last 10 years that comes close."

"The year's best picture. James McAvoy delivers a heartbreaking performance. Saoirse Ronan and Romola Garai are both terrific. Keira Knightley is a classic English rose, hemmed by polite society, who reveals reserves of passion and strength belied by such a pretty, privileged wrapper. The country house sets are nearly as gorgeous as the actress herself, ditto the costumes and the war scenes on the beaches at Dunkirk are devastating. When we left, weeping and moved, we felt like we had lived an entire life out of our own skin, not just seen a two-hour movie."

"Atonement is everything a true lover of movies could possibly hope for! It is unquestionably, without any reservations, my favorite film of the year! Elegantly directed, meticulously acted by a perfect cast and lavishly filmed with a respect for both intimate detail and sweeping narrative. An overwhelming experience that has revived my faith in motion pictures. The genuinely talented Joe Wright does an engrossing job of turning literature into cinematic poetry. The sets, and costumes stagger the imagination. James McAvoy gives a heart-rending performance of strength and integrity. Saoirse Ronan and Romola Garai are remarkable. A revelation of the potential power of cinema to twist, mould, convince, and entertain."

"The most enthrallingly stylish tale since 'The English Patient.' As we root for Robbie, Cecilia and Briony to have happy endings, we recognize that the film isn't simply a grand historical romance but an explanation of how storytelling can both betray and redeem us. Director Joe Wright wins a scarily assured turn from Saoirse Ronan. Vanessa Redgrave is radiant. As bright and hard as an emerald in her ravishing green dress, Keira Knightley's Cecilia exudes a brittle hauteur that finally can't mask a fiery spirit."

"A big, lush exhilarating movie. Gripping, brilliantly made, and grown up. It would be criminal to spill any more about the plot twists and turns of this sweeping epic that at times recalls the work of David Lean. James McAvoy is so compelling. Vanessa Redgrave provides a master's seminar on the art of acting. Superbly played by Saoirse Ronan."

Nothing in Joe Wright's screen version of Ian McEwan's dense, internalized 2001 novel of secrets and lies should really work, but damn near everything does. It's some kind of miracle. Written, directed and acted to perfection, Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance. The film moves from the country estate of a wealthy British family, circa 1935, through the World War II battlefields of Dunkirk and finally to the end of the twentieth century, where it springs its most haunting surprise. Stuffy? Not a bit. This potently erotic spellbinder is not your father's period piece. It speaks, minus the stiff upper lip, of what's timeless about passion, art and redemption. Atonement is literary in the best possible sense: It's obsessed with the power of words.