"Atonement"

Bruce and I used my free movie passes to see "Atonement" today. I'd read the book a couple of years ago and discussed it at a book club at my local library.

The movie was excellent, and seemed very true to the book (although I don't remember everything now). Young Briony is quite full of herself, and full of romantic fantasies but no real understanding of love or sexuality. On one fateful day in 1935, she has her ego knocked about when her cousins don't want to take part in a play she has written. She witnesses an odd scene between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the bright young man who doesn't fit in, as he is the son of one of their servants. Later, she delivers a note to Cecelia that Robbie gives to her by mistake, and she reads it first. It's a highly erotic note but Briony misreads it and believes it proves Robbie is a sex maniac.

Cecelia, on the other hand, is turned on by it, and she and Robbie have a tryst in the library. Unfortunately, it is witnessed by Briony who now believes she has witnessed an attack. Later in the evening, when her twin cousins run away and everyone goes out to search, Briony sees her cousin being held down on the ground by a male attacker. She accuses Robbie, knowing it's not true, but sticking to her story when she's questioned.

Robbie goes to prison as a result of her testimony and ends up serving in World War 2 since he was offered a release in order to go into the army. The war scenes are nightmarish, especially the scene at Dunkirk, with drunken soldiers reeling every which way, wounded and crippled people, horses being shot to avoid them being taken by the enemy, and soldiers riding abandoned amusement rides.

Briony becomes a nurse like Cecelia and tries to do penance for the lie that haunts her. But she can't wash away the guilt no matter what she does. As a writer she envisions a somewhat happy ending, in which Robbie and Cecelia are married and happy together, but they will not forgive her; they insist that she write letters exonerating Robbie and apologizing for her perjury.

But in fact, as she states at the end, now an old lady with a fatal illness, that's not what happened at all. In fact, Robbie died at Dunkirk, and Cecelia died during a bombing six months later. They never saw each other again and never had a chance at the happiness they could have had if Briony had told the truth about the person who committed the assault.

I won't reveal that, though I've probably already revealed too much anyhow. This was a sad movie of three lives destroyed by a little girl's lie. For Briony's life was destroyed too, she was haunted by her guilt and never found a man of her own or had any family.

Why did she lie? Bruce asked me this when we were leaving the theater. I think it was a combination of things. She was a self-centered rich kid who was mighty put out that her brilliant play wasn't lapped up by her cousins (who were distraught over their parents' divorce). She had a crush on Robbie at one time, and probably was angry that he didn't return her affection. Plus, she just didn't understand erotic love, and completely misinterpreted what she saw between her sister and Robbie. And then there was the class issue. It was so much easier to throw the blame on a lower-class person, especially one who had been allowed to rise above his station. People were quite willing to believe that he would be the rapist and not the upper class person who actually was the attacker.

I liked this film a great deal and I recommend both the movie and the book.