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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
91
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
82
Chop Shop
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Shotgun Stories
74
Witnesses, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Roman de gare
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
71
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Caramel
69
Redbelt
69
Chicago 10
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Jellyfish
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Shelter
65
Married Life
64
Surfwise
64
Son of Rambow
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
Body of War
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Battle for Haditha
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
Girls Rock!
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Fugitive Pieces
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Turn the River
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
54
Mister Lonely
52
Noise
52
My Blueberry Nights
50
Look
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Dark Matter
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
17
Prom Night
xx
Tashan
xx
Unsettled
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Atonement
Focus Features
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality
Starring
Keira Knightley,
James McAvoy,
Romola Garai,
Vanessa Redgrave,
and
Brenda Blethyn
Atonement spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony's vivid imagination. Robbie Turner, the educated son of the family's housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony's headstrong older sister, Cecilia. Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony--who has a crush on Robbie--is compelled to interfere, going so far as to accuse Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but Robbie is arrested--and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement and to an understanding of the power of enduring love. (Focus Features)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Romance
|
War
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Christopher Hampton
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Joe Wright
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 18, 2008
Theatrical: December 7, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
130 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / France |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English / French |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Newsweek
David Ansen
No two-hour film could ever capture all the riches of McEwan's masterly novel. But Wright and Hampton's Atonement comes tantalizingly close, while adding sensual delights all its own.
100
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Nothing in Joe Wright's screen version of Ian McEwan's dense, internalized 2001 novel of secrets and lies should really work, but damn near everything does. It's some kind of miracle. Written, directed and acted to perfection, Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance.
100
Variety
Derek Elley
Rarely has a book sprung so vividly to life, but also worked so enthrallingly in pure movie terms, as with Atonement, Brit helmer Joe Wright?s smart, dazzlingly upholstered adaptation of Ian McEwan?s celebrated 2001 novel.
100
Empire
Helen O'Hara
Gorgeous cinematography, a lilting score and near-faultless performances, under Wright?s assured direction, make this the first contender for next year?s Best Picture Oscar.
100
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Nothing comes easily in Atonement, especially its ending, which, both happy and tragic, is as wrenching as it is genuinely satisfying. How fitting, somehow, that a novel so devoted to the precision and passionate love of language be captured in a film that is simply too exquisite for words.
100
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A singular achievement -- romantic, sensuous, intelligent and finally shattering in its sweep and thematic complexity.
100
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Atonement is that rare combo: a good movie based on a good book.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is one of the year's best films, a certain best picture nominee.
100
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
What might seem like showing off in another movie is dazzling storytelling here, packing in an hour's worth of human misery.
100
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
This is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves.
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
An unforgettable examination of a host of dark impulses.
100
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The result is a film that has "Masterpiece Theatre" production values but not an ounce of dust upon it.
100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Through unexpected and cathartic twists, this movie leaves you with atonement and redemption.
100
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The interpretation is so painstaking and moving that almost every moment delivers a shuddering jolt to the head and the heart.
91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
The generous, sharp performances, especially Garai's, deepen the story's emotional impact, as does Wright's assured, frequently astounding direction.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
With compelling and charismatic performances by Keira Knightley and James McAvoy as the lovers, and a stunning contribution from Romola Garai as their remorseful nemesis, the film goes directly to "The English Patient" territory and might also expect rapturous audiences and major awards.
90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
May not hit every note perfectly, but the picture they've come up with is full-bodied and intelligent.
89
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
It?s not quite as brutalizing as McEwan?s brilliant source novel ? it bears too much of a Great Art buff ? but it ravishes nonetheless in its grand exploration of the sins of the daughter and a lifetime spent making reparations.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
In the end, Atonement sorts truth from fiction as it delivers a shattering kick to the solar plexus.
88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Atonement is effective at getting under the skin, and some audience members won't like that.
88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Hampton and Wright have been more than sensible when it comes to Atonement. They?ve responded intuitively to a tale that is half art and half potboiler, like so many stories worth telling.
83
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Vanessa Redgrave, as the adult Briony, appears at the very end in a monologue that rounds out the film with heartbreaking force.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
It is an amazing story, filled with quiet moments of profundity and more surprises than you could imagine.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The movie never goes as deep as the novel (no movie could), but it's a worthy approximation: a Merchant-Ivory movie that turns in on itself with a lucid and painful sigh.
75
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
A handsome film, an earnest film, a film with taste in music and photography and a real sense of intelligence. But too often it feels like an exercise. And even when you're impressed by it, you know you're being played.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
In the end -- an ending of such power and narrative originality (in both book and movie) that those who know it ought never breathe a word to those who don't.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
It's an imperfect movie that serves as a perfect reminder of what the movies do best.
75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
The settings are handsome, the cinematography accomplished, the performances first-rate.
75
TV Guide
Ken Fox
For the most part, the result is a smashing success, filled with great performances and exquisite production design. But those final moments, in which the true nature of the story is revealed, are an unmitigated disaster.
70
Village Voice
Ella Taylor
Wright wouldn't recognize unobtrusive if it tapped him on the nose--he's cross- pollinated the first half of Atonement into an Oscar-buzzy brew of Masterpiece Theatre and "Upstairs, Downstairs," with the wild English countryside tamed into an artfully lit fairy glade, and into just enough of a bodice-ripper to reel in the youth market. And not a bad one at that.
70
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Atonement works reasonably well as a tragic romance, but that sting is dulled. As a book, it was a blow to the head; as a movie, it?s an adaptation of a book.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
The characters are not hugely compelling, the performances never completely grab us, and much of the story, while visually arresting, is dramatically tedious.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The movie version feels like a stately, but watered down, episode of "Masterpiece Theatre" fused with "The English Patient."
60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
You have to admire it, when so much of the competition seems inane and slack, but you can?t help wondering, with some impatience, what happened to its heart.
50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Atonement fails to be anything more than a decorous, heavily decorated and ultimately superficial reading of the book on which it is based.
40
Film Threat
Jeff Beresford-Howe
Imagine if the team that made "The English Patient" tried to make the same kind of movie, with even more brave-lads-fighting-the-Jerries porn and this time with Extra Added English country manor porn, and without really good actors, and this movie is what you?d have.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 231 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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