Best of the Best Picture Nominees for 2007

Atonement

As I said in my earlier review, Atonement is not a perfect movie. In fact, I'll go out on a limb here by stating there wasn't anything close to a perfect movie released in 2007. Atonement would not have been my first choice for a Best Picture nomination either. However, the film has some very accomplished things in it. Namely, one of those things is the acting from such stars as James McAvoy, and Keira Knightley. The two stars bring a vibrant and palpable chemistry to their short-lived and very passionate romance.

The film is based on the 2001 novel, Atonement by British author Ian McEwan. It's regarded as one of McEwan's best works. Atonement was added to the Time magazine All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list. Even, The Observer called it one of the 100 best novels written. Certainly, Atonement is one of the most celebrated and honored novels of recent years.

When McAvoy's Robbie Turner tries to confess his love for Knightley's Cecilia Tallis, you believe his sincerity. Knightley's Cecilia is equally effective when she grabs him, wraps her arms and around him for one very lustful, and sensual love scene in the library. This is quicky cut short when Cecilia's nosey sister, the 13-year-old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) walks in on the lovers.

The novel, Atonement is complex, told from several points of view and divided into four different parts. The first part is from the 13-year-old Briony's perspective. The second; from Robbie Turner and Cecilia's perspectives. The older, wiser Briony is the principal character in part three. Then the novel ends with the perspective of Briony as a woman in her 70s.