Atonement (2007)

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Atonement (2007)

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Atonement is a 2007 British drama film directed by Joe Wright, written by Christopher Hampton (screenplay) and starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave, Benedict Cumberbatch and Saoirse Ronan. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan.
Atonement opened the 64th Venice International Film Festival, making Wright, at the age of 35, the youngest director ever to open the event. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival. At the 61st British Academy Film Awards Atonement won the Best Film of the Year and the Production Design award. The film won an Oscar for the Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards.

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Atonement (2007)

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Plot: In 1935, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a 13-year-old girl from a wealthy English family, has just finished writing a play. As Briony attempts to stage the play with her cousins, they get bored and decide to go swimming. Briony stays behind and witnesses a significant moment of sexual tension between her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley), and Robbie Turner, a servant's son (James McAvoy), a man Briony has a childish crush on. Robbie returns home and writes several drafts of letters to Cecilia, including one, explicit and erotically charged. He does not, however, intend to send it and sets it aside. On his way to join the Tallis family celebration, Robbie asks Briony to deliver his letter, only to later realise that he has mistakenly given her the prurient one. Briony secretly reads the letter and becomes still more suspicious of Robbie's intentions. That evening, Cecilia and Robbie meet in the library, where they finally declare their love for one another and make love. During the act, Briony watches through the partially open door and due to the letter and her young age mistakenly believes that Robbie is raping her sister. At dinner it is revealed that the twin cousins have run away. Briony goes off alone into the woods looking for them and stumbles upon a man running away from apparently raping her teenaged cousin Lola (Juno Temple).

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Atonement (2007)

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Lola claims that she does not know the identity of her attacker, but Briony is certain that it was Robbie, and tells everyone this, including the police, claiming she saw Robbie commit the act. She shows the shocking letter to her mother. Everyone believes her story – except for Cecilia. Robbie is arrested and sent to prison. Four years later, Robbie is released from prison on condition that he join the army. He is assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. He is reunited with Cecilia (who has not spoken with her family since the incident) in London, where they renew their love before he is shipped off to the French front. Briony (Romola Garai), now 18, has joined Cecilia's old nursing corps at St. Thomas's in London because she wants to be of some practical use to the society and has given up an offer she received from Cambridge. Her attempts at contacting her sister go unanswered, as Cecilia blames her for Robbie's imprisonment. Later, Robbie, wounded and very ill, finally arrives at the beaches of Dunkirk, where he waits to be evacuated. Briony, now fully understanding the impact of her accusation, later visits Cecilia to apologise to her directly. Cecilia coldly replies that she will never forgive her. Robbie, in a rage that almost becomes physical, confronts Briony and demands that she immediately tell her family and the authorities the truth.

–from wikipedia

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Atonement (2007)

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Atonement (2007)

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Atonement (2007)

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Atonement (2007)

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Atonement (2007)

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