I’ve seen a fair amount of movies. I have tons of favorites, to the point that I can’t really say I have a definitive actual favorite. It always depends on my mood. That being said, never has there been an image from a movie that’s stuck with me quite like this one has. [Image removed.]
Holy. Effing. Library. Scene. Batman.
Oh, that’s not Batman, by the way. That, my friends, is James McAvoy making love to Kiera Knightly in the library with a candlestick… or something… in the movie Atonement. (I have to give my friend Katie credit for the weapon suggestion; mine was much cruder.) And speaking of crude, this incredibly-made-masterpiece-of-a-film contains the crudest word in the English language… prominently, I might add. And it’s so crude, I won’t put it on the blog, but to me, if you’re going to use that word in a book, use it the way Ian McEwan did in his. And if you want to put it in a movie, you might as well flash it on the screen, full-screen, in all its sexual glory.
Because it is HOT the way Robbie used it in his letter to Cecilia. I would have led him to the library, too. No question.
Anyway, believe it or not, this movie would have been incredibly moving even without the letter and the library sex. It’s complicated and heartbreaking. Here’s a brief summary from Amazon…
When a young girl catches her sister in a passionate embrace with a childhood friend, her jealousy drives her to tell a lie that will irrevocably change the course of all their lives forever. Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley and James McAvoy lead an all-star cast in the film critics are hailing “the year’s best picture.”
The movie was released in 2007, but is based on a story told in the time of World War II. You will fall in love with Cecilia and Robbie. You will root for their happily ever after. You will want to kill the ‘young girl’ mentioned in the summary above, Briony (what an awesome name, though). You will want to kill her friend, and her brother’s friend, too. By the end of the movie, you will learn what it’s like to live a lifetime with regret, with remorse, with sorrow, with guilt, and with a truth that was hidden for a moment– or an eternity– too long.
This movie is epic, it is timeless, and it will be a classic.
Lori L. Otto, author 