Reviewed by Max Foizey.

Release Date: December 14, 2007
Directed By: Joe Wright
Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan
Rating: R

The opening of "Atonement" is actually a tad amusing, as things are going well and playful inside an English country house between the World Wars.

Keira Knightley shimmers as Cecilia, the eldest daughter of the Tallis family, and James McAvoy wisely underplays his part as Robbie Turner, their housekeeper's son, a friend of the family who has developed feelings for Cecilia.

Cecilia’s younger sister Briony (the incredible new talent Saoirse Ronan), she of thirteen years, has a crush on Robbie and is horrified when she spies Robbie and Cecilia together, in erotic situations her young mind doesn't fully comprehend.

I won't spoil exactly what events lead Briony to tell a lie that sends Robbie to jail, but it's a horrific misunderstanding. Once Robbie is in the big house, he is given the option of staying in the coop or fighting in the war, and of course he chooses the latter.

Meanwhile Cecilia has become a nurse, taking care of the wounded soldiers who remind her of her lost Robbie. Years and letters pass between Robbie and Cecilia, who remain devoted to one another despite their distance.

Now eighteen, Briony (Romola Garai) has realized the devastating effect of her lie, and wants nothing more than to set things right.

Keira Knightley may not be in every scene of this film, as she was in "Atonement" director Joe Wright's first project, last year's excellent adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," but she is in top form nonetheless.

James McAvoy portrays Robbie as the most sympathetic screen hero in recent memory, and overall his squint serves him much better than the faun legs he sported in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" as MR. TUMNUS.

But this is Briony's story above anyone else's and all three actresses who portray her  are perfection personified on screen, especially Vanessa Redgrave, who ends the film with a shocking confession. Redgrave is simply amazing.

Only 35, director Joe Wright has fashioned a film far beyond his years. “Atonement” is a modern classic.

See this on the big screen if only for the five minute tracking shot as McAvoy and his men descend on a beach in Dunkirk, finding themselves enveloped in the chaos of an evacuation.

I loved this film so much after first seeing it that I wanted to watch it every day for a year. Such is the obsessive love I have for cinema done right, such was the obsessive love shared by Robbie and Cecilia.

In addition to hosting 'Max on Movies' every Saturday at 2pm on 97.1 FM Talk, Max appears weekly on the Dave Glover Show Fridays at 5pm. A member of the Saint Louis Gateway Film Critics Association, Max has written about film and theatre for various print and Web media, and appeared as guest critic on nationally syndicated radio shows. Max was impressed by Dario Marianelli's inventive score for "Atonement," which features a most unusual, if appropriate, percussive instrument: a typewriter. E-mail Max at mfoizey@stl.emmis.com