Worth seeing?
Sure, but not the masterpiece it promotes itself to be, and the more I think about it, the less I like the story.
Too slow, with a twist at the end overplayed with a "Titanic"-like scene at the end smacking of the "afterlife" or some such nonsense.
It suffers from sloppy editing.
Visually well done, but the acting seemed weak, without the passion and heartache of the story - the best portrayal: Saoirse Ronan, a 13-year old Briony Tallis, a first-class snot!
Romola Garai, who portrays Briony as young nurse, seems to be the weakest link, failing to convey the poison of the younger Briony and the moral dilemma of the older.
Movies that end with a twist like this leave me cold. It's a poor substitute for a good story simply and powerfully told. Good twists emerge from within the story itself, not as an artifice known all along by the story teller. Devices such as this feel like a cruel joke rather than a simple prank.
The story of a child betraying her older sister and her lover and the life-long consequences is powerful and sad and should suffice (for a much better but similar story, see "The Kite Runner").
The "atonement" offered is no atonement at all - writing a novel/biography to give life to her memories is no excuse for her poisonous character and her total cowardice.
"Atonement" in the religious sense requires a cross - a great price paid - not merely for one's own foolishness, but to set things right for others.
Briony pays no such price - she only suffers remorse, if that at all, and some blurred guilt obscured now by imagination which is no substitute for simply telling the truth! This is a story which should have no happy ending.
Oh well ... if only atonement were so easy, God might well have penned a parable wherein the Son dies only in someone's imagination.
