Atonement — review by Roger Ebert

The daughter of an upper-class British family (Keira Knightley) falls for a housekeeper’s son (James McAvoy), with tragic results. “Atonement” begins on joyous gossamer wings, and descends into an abyss of tragedy and loss. Its opening scenes in an English country house between the wars are like a dream of elegance, and then a 13-year-old girl sees something she misunderstands, tells a lie and destroys all possibility of happiness in three lives, including her own. The movie’s opening act is like a breathless celebration of pure heedless joy, a demonstration of the theory that the pinnacle of human happiness was reached by life in an English country house between the wars. Of course that was more true of those upstairs than downstairs. We meet Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley), the bold, older daughter of an old family, and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), their housekeeper’s promising son, who is an Oxford graduate, thanks to the generosity of Cecilia’s father. Despite their difference in

The daughter of an upper-class British family (Keira Knightley) falls for a housekeeper’s son (James McAvoy), with tragic results. “Atonement” begins on joyous gossamer wings, and descends into an abyss of tragedy and loss. Its opening scenes in an English country house between the wars are like a dream of elegance, and then a 13-year-old girl sees something she misunderstands, tells a lie and destroys all possibility of happiness in three lives, including her own. The movie’s opening act is like a breathless celebration of pure heedless joy, a demonstration of the theory that the pinnacle of