.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Seven. Before I even had the opportunity to see the new war-romance film Atonement, it had already been nominated for seven Golden Globe award - more than any other film in 2007's flock. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Score. Seven.

Hard not to walk into the film without expectations when every ad in the print and television media is touting its achievements in nominations. But then I started to look at various critic's Best Of lists. After all, it is the end of the year and everyone and their dog has a top ten list of some sorts floating about on the internet. But nowhere was Atonement to be found. After a three hour internet search, I stopped looking. Hmmmm, I thought. Strange.

Atonement is the film version of the Ian McEwan best seller of the same name that stars Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis and James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland) as Robbie - two young pups whose love is interrupted when Cecilia's jealous younger sister Briony falsifies a rape report accusing Robbie thus separating the two love birds in 1930's England.

The resulting years have Robbie fighting during WWII (prisoners were often given leaves to fight in the war during the period) while Cecilia holds onto her love that amounted to them acknowledging and sexually interacting just once, and that being the day of the siblings accusation.

Atonement is not a bad film, but it isn't of the four star variety either. The first and foremost problem is the lack of passion and backstory of the two leads that would spend the next 90 minutes trying to reunite and rekindle their relationship. Much like the argument I put forth a few years ago with Cold Mountain, Cecilia and Robbie just don't spend enough time together for us to believe that the next five years will be spent doing nothing but pining over what amounted to a one night stand (stand being the operative word wink-wink-nod-nod). Cecilia's cries of, "I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me" just don't hold the weight of the emotional baggage the filmmakers were probably hoping for.

The second biggest problem is the story's timeline. Countless flashes forward and back made me feel like the naked swimmer at the beginning of Jaws, always being tugged one way then back in a violent manner. Having the story shoot straight from beginning to end would have created a better flow for the film would have taken nothing away from the points to which director Joe Wright wanted to ring home.

Much has been written about the scene on the beach lasting many minutes without a director's cut. Some critics call it a marvelous achievement and others claim it to be a distraction that took away from the horror that the moment could parlay. I side with those critics that consider it a fascinating segment that resembled Scorcese's work in Goodfellas. To shoot a scene to which you have over a thousand extras and less than 24 hours to pull it all together is something that shouldn't be overlooked and the sweeping continuous motion of the camera was something that will not soon be forgotten.

The ending of Atonement was one that I didn't see coming, but didn't care to invest time in the possible scenarios either. It was neither a blow nor was it a revelation that generated much discussion with the wife on the ride home. It was what it was and we were both thankful that it brought to a close what was a good film, but such a disappointing one as well.