Atonement

Atonement isn't a perfect movie, but it is a haunting one. It begins on the luminously filmed grounds of a 1930s English estate, travels through the grimness of war-torn Europe five years later, and ends with a heartbreaking revelation in the present. James Macavoy is so soulful and charming as Robbie (*swoon*) that you really do feel the wrenching tragedy of promise cut short by a lie; yet the young girl who plays his accuser is both so precocious and vulnerable that we can find sympathy for the way she mistakenly perceives events to cause horrific consequences. Every scene is exquisitely styled and shot, and Keira Knightley is so glamorously beautiful that I have no doubt her wardrobe will be copied at every Zara and H&M. But the flipside is that the posing sometimes diminishes the intensity of emotions that the story and actors arouse. Nonetheless, as someone who hasn't even read the book, I was swept away by this experience.