ATONEMENTBook + Film Review [CC]

Hi everyone, today I'm here to talk to you
about "Atonement," both the film and the book. I will say that I'm not going to go
into any spoilery territories for either, so if you have not read the book
or seen the film I won't be giving away anything specific. However, I might be going into general
settings and some plot synopses that people might consider spoilers, so if
you're really just wanting to go into this not knowing anything, I would
recommend that you go read the book and see the film first. If you've seen the film
and not read the book or vice versa I.

Think this video is ok, but if you just
want to completely stay away from knowing anything about it, go do that first and then come back and
watch this video. So I will start with the book since that is where I began.
This book was released in 2001 and it was shortlisted, if I'm not mistaken, for
the Man Booker Prize that year, and he did not win. I think this is probably one
of Ian McEwan's most well-known books,, as well as a very popular contemporary British
novel. And it has influenced a lot of British novels since and it is very
heavily influenced by British novels from before its release as well.

It has a
very "country house manor" style to it. It's about a family living in this
English mansion. It also involves WWII, so it has a lot of these twentieth-century
themes, especially from English culture. It follows sort of the quintessential
British characters, but what I appreciated about this is that didn't necessarily
feel like anything I had read before, or at least parts of it hadn't.

It opens with
us following Briony Tallis who is a 12 year old girl living with her family in
this English manor house. And she is writing a play because her cousins are
coming to live with the family as their parents are getting a divorce, as
well as her older brother and one of his friends is returning to visit. Briony
has decided to put on this play that she's written for the whole family. Right away we get this characterization
of Briony as a very determined kind of stubborn girl who is very lost in her head
and has all these stories swirling around.

But she's very structured and
rigid which kind of contrasts a lot of ideas of novelists and writers who are
very free-thinking and kind of flowing. She really appreciates Virginia Woolf, and the
novel itself sort of follows that indirect kind of flowing style that
Virginia Woolf writes in, but Briony herself is not really that kind of
character. And she's contrasted by her older sister, Cecilia, who is very stately and beautiful and
wants everything to appear chaotic. She's putting together a vase of flowers, and
she want them to fall into like this beautiful kind of natural pose, but she's
also trying to control everything.

So in that way they are very similar, and then
their mother who is riddled with these migraines and is an aloof figure but
she has control over everything in the house as well. So there are these three
female characters who are all sort of contrasting and compared to one another
in really unique ways. And that's one thing that looking at the film you don't
get as much of. Obviously with the film you can't read from the perspective of the characters;
you can't hear their internal monologue or at least the characterization that we
get in the novel.

But not jumping into the film yet: the book, the first
hundred and fifty pages or so-- about the first half of the book-- I was completely
gripped. It is all taking place in one day. There is some drama that takes place which I'm not going to talk about because that is basically the plot of
the novel and I don't give anything away. This first half of the book has this very
heightened sense.

It takes this confined situation in this one house within this
one family and it blows it up to make it feel like it's this huge deal. It is a very
powerful situation, it is very important, but McEwan rights in such a way that you
think it's affecting the whole world. Then in the second part of the novel we
jump into WWII and we really see the effects that something is having
on the whole world; and yet we're only following it from one character's
perspective. So it goes from this multi- perspectival writing and in this
really isolated area to one person's point of view in a very big setting.

And
that contrast, while I thought it was really interesting, didn't really work for me. I
felt like the second part was very listless, very boring and that did feel
like something I had read before-- this WWII story-- and I didn't really
connect or care about what was happening. I just kind of wanted to find out what
was happening back with the family in the house, you know, years later because
it does jump forward in time in the second part. So then in the end we get
back to sort of tying all the stories together, and I thought that was really
beautiful.

It kind of saved the book a little bit for me, after the sort of
slower second part, and I ended up really liking it in the end. I don't think it's my favorite, but I
can see why it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It definitely has that
important sort of quality about it that you can't always put your finger on, but
you know that this novel is doing something unique and telling a really
great story as well. And the first part of the book I was just underlining
things like crazy; it is so beautifully written which is why I didn't like the
second part as much, because you really lost that lyricism for more of a stark
depiction of war, which is totally understandable.

For me I'm just not a
huge war story person, so it kind of lost me in the middle there. So then I decided
to watch the film which was directed by Joe Wright, I believe, in 2007. I remember
when this movie came out it really interested me but I was pretty young at
the time so I didn't see it and I'm glad I waited and especially until after I
read the book. Because while the movie is a really, really great adaptation and I
almost enjoyed it more than reading the book, there were things obviously that
they had to leave out.

And they weren't necessarily plot points or really huge
things that they left out, but just the small characterizations that you can't
get when you are filming something, unless you use voice-over which I don't
think works all the time. As a whole the movie was beautifully filmed. It's the
same director who did the 2005 "Pride and Prejudice" as well as "Anna Karenina" which
are both starring Keira Knightley. He just must have a thing for her, and she
works really well in period pieces.

I don't know what it is about Keira
Knightley but she just fits perfectly into older settings. And Saoirse Ronan who
plays Briony in the first part of the movie before she grows up is absolutely
amazing; no wonder she got really famous after this movie and got nominated for
an Academy Award because she's actually as an actress the same age that the
character is. And usually they cast an order actor to play a younger character,
but she was the same age and it worked so well. And her performance is amazing.
So aside from all the great acting the filming is absolutely beautiful.

The setting of the house and the war
actually contrast each other really well. It all looks like it's shot through
really old film, and it's just beautiful. Keira Knightley looks like she's in a fragrance ad
for like the whole movie. The war scenes work way better on film for me and the
ending of the book was a little bit more descriptive than the ending of the film.
I think they cut some stuff out and sort of simplified it to really get the point
across.

The book didn't get complex or crazy, but it gave you a little bit more
to chew on, where the movie kind of led you to one point and then
dropped you off there. And while I think that works really well, I did enjoy the
ending of the book a little bit more. Overall, I prefer the film actually in this
situation, but the first half of the book I prefer the book because there's just
so much more you can understand about the characters. And McEwan does just a
great job writing about them and really showing their complexities that
doesn't always translate onto film.

If you've seen the movie let me know if you preferred it to
the book, or if you like the book more. Usually I do like books more but I think
this one just worked better on film. Let me know what your thoughts are on a
Atonement. I hope you guys enjoy this review.

And I will see you in my next
video. Bye!.