Current Obsession: Atonement At first I was hesitant to watch this movie because I heard it's tragic, sad and frustrating. I hate tragic, sad, frustrating movies. I hate being negatively affected by something that should be entertaining. So I was avoiding Atonement and had no real desire to watch it. But my co-worker had it on her Netflix and lent it to me. So I gave it a try but first preparing myself that this will be a tough movie but to try to not let it affect me... with that being said... I love ATONEMENT! like LOVE atonement... like for real life LOVE... this is a movie that I can watch again and again... (thus the 'obsessive' title) and in fact did (twice in one weekend) and would watch again if I did not have to do my taxes! GRR! I want to read/buy the book and I want to buy the movie and watch it again and again. It's so rewatchable for me because every part of the movie is so beautiful and important to the story. There are no parts that I can do without. (That's saying a lot for me since I generally don't like war movies.)
{edit: watched this movie 4 times and read the book in matter of 2 weeks!} (spoilers) I think I was able to love the movie because I don't hate Briony. I understand her. I don't blame her. Come on. She was 13! The real person to blame is Paul Marshall and the adults for basing the whole case on a 13 year old child who they knew to have a creative imagination. I understood her as a child and really grew to like her as an adult. (I think also b/c they didn't show James McAvoy suffering in jail helped me get over the injustice.) I was thinking a lot about this movie and why I liked it. Maybe it's because in my mind I believe the happy ending even though it wasn't real. This movie is so different from other movies. There's no conclusive ending and it just keeps going in my mind. I can't explain it. Also maybe because I don't hold Briony to this high standard. I understand that as a child then later as an adult, what she went through... it was so real, so HUMAN! As a side note, but a really significant one, James McAvoy was so AHMG in this movie. I <3 him! Some of my favorite quotes and stills:
Robbie Turner: [voiceover] Dearest Cecilia, the story can resume. The one I had been planning on that evening walk. I can become again the man who once crossed the surrey park at dusk, in my best suit, swaggering on the promise of life. The man who, with the clarity of passion, made love to you in the library. The story can resume. I will return. Find you, love you, marry you and live without shame. These have to be the most beautiful words in the whole movie. I can imagine the scene of him getting dressed and looking so clean and handsome in his tux and walking down the road to join Cecilia at the party. There was so much hope, young love and potential at this point. Very effervescent quality ...  
Robbie Turner: Why're you crying? I love the look on his face when he says that... AHMG! So loving and concerned~! 
Robbie Turner: ...if all we have rests in a few moments in a library three and a half years ago, then I don't know... I don't...
Cecilia Tallis: Robbie... look at me. Look at me. Come back. Come back to me. This scene in the tea place, is by far my most favorite scene. It's so subtle yet powerful. The scene with the hands and stirring the coffee is my flavorite part. I LOVE James McAvoy's facial expression... He plays his part brilliantly! I love this scene because for a BRIEF moment in time they were able to meet face to face and have real HOPE for the future! Robbie Turner: How old do you have to be to know the difference between right and wrong? What are you 18? Do you have to be 18 before you can bring yourself to own up to a lie? There are soldiers of 18, old enough to be left to die by the side of the road, did you know that?
Briony 18 years old: Yes
Robbie Turner: Five years ago, you didn't care about telling the truth. You, all your family, you just assumed that for all my education, I was still little better than a servant. Still not to be trusted! Thanks to you, they were able to close ranks and throw me to the fucking wolves! Briony 18 years old: I am very, very sorry for the terrible distress that I have caused you. I am very, very sorry... This was what she was never able to really say... but she so desperately wants to but she can't bring herself to do so. Instead she writes it into her story... the whole scene is her way of bringing punishment upon herself that she felt she deserved but never received. Also, James McAvoy's delivery here is so moving, especially when he says "There are soldiers of 18..." The way his voice inflects is so powerful. Older Briony: So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness. I agree... I want to believe this... that they somehow have their happiness~
Robbie Turner: Come on, pal. You should be getting dressed.
Briony Tallis, aged 13: If I fell in the river, would you save me?
Robbie Turner: Of course.
[Briony jumps into the water and Robbie dives after her; eventually, he pulls her out of the water and drops her near the bank]
Briony Tallis, aged 13: Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Robbie Turner: That was an incredibly bloody stupid thing to do.
Briony Tallis, aged 13: I wanted you to save me.
Robbie Turner: Don't you know how easily you could have drowned?
Briony Tallis, aged 13: You saved me.
Robbie Turner: You stupid child! You could have killed us both! Is that your idea of a joke?
[she looks at him for a moment, shocked by his tone, but defiant nonetheless]
Briony Tallis, aged 13: I want to thank you for saving my life. I'll be eternally grateful to you. I like this scene because it's so real... meaning this is how a 13 year old thinks! She's imagined for so long, playing in her mind, how this scene would go... She knows the words that she would say when Robbie saves her... But in her naivete she doesn't realize the seriousness of what she did... so Robbie is justifably angry but Briony is confused but continues to say the only line she knows... "I want to thank you for saving my life. I'll be eternally grateful to you." The End
(... until my next obsession in which I must post about.)  
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there's no more! booooooo
