Wonderful, awesome, powerful, sad, inspiring.
All of this and more.
A story of childhood betrayal - cruel, poisonous, sad, with hideous consequences. A story replete with the sad realities that comprise much of life, and finding hope and goodness nonetheless.
Will the young man who betrayed his childhood best friend and half-brother (disclosed only later) find his soul again?
He, too (like "Atonement") writes a novel, but the story requires more of him.
His moral dilemma, his struggle with cowardice, his decision to put himself at risk for a child he's never known - this is "atonement" at its best. As for the twist, keep your eye on the slingshot!
The acting is powerful and consistent - all the technical pieces are here: music, cinematography, editing.
In the end, I was choked up ... so was my family ... and much of the theater. A simple story simply told ... a good ending, one with hope, without compromising the human tragedy.
