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Director Joe Wright and writer Christopher Hampton adapts this wonderful film from the novel by Ian McEwan. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to grab a DVD of Atonement. I'm glad that the busy schedule and work load allowed me to resist that urge because this film was a joy to watch on the big screen.

Masking as a sweeping romantic epic set immediately before World War 2, Atonement is a brilliant cinematic meditation on guilt. Possibly the best one I have seen after Au Revoir Les Enfantes, this film scores big with captivating cinematography punctuated by wonderful musical score that makes use of typewriter keys. It's a nice touch, considering the film plays with the possibility of having written a biographical piece as reparation for something very grave. The love story between Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) takes the backseat as the former's 13-year old sister Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses the blossoming romance between the two. Jealous of her sister's clandestine affair with someone from a decidedly lower class and clueless about everything in general, Briony points out Robbie falsely as the man behind a recent sexual assault she has witnessed.

This haunts Briony for the rest of her life. Her atonement is writing the novel, imagining the lives of Robbie and her sister, making assumptions about war's horrors, imagining passion and love to transcend in the lives she ruined. Whether what is narrated is real or not, the seething feeling of guilt pulls through. To pull this off, the film has given much weight to the performances of its wonderful cast, who all manage to lend credibility and believability to their respective parts no matter how big or small.