Sunday, February 17, 2008

ATONEMENT

I don't get the big deal about ATONEMENT. It's not one of the best films of the year. It's extremely predictable. The structure is weak, and the story is not involving. The first third is pretty good, it's a British drama about a love affair. But then the movie suddenly jumps four years forward to WWII, and it falls apart completely.

There are some nice elements. The score is beautiful, as is the cinematography. The acting is split; some is great, some is not. The sound design is interesting; the music incorporates some of the sound effects from the film, most notably the typewriter. Unfortunately this is a very obvious use of sound, and reminded me of Leroy Anderson's orchestral piece "The Typerwriter," which has a percussionist playing the typewriter. Anderson is the "genius" who gave us "Sleigh Ride" (with a trumpet as a whinnying horse) and "Syncopated Clock" which sounds like... a clock. So that says a lot about this "creative" use of sound.

I'd say skip this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

your still a virgin...aren't you?

Bondelev said...

Not sure what that has to do with this movie review; but you can read about my relationship with my wife on this post

ZiggyMustard said...

Ah, it's the douche from the last entry! I think he likes you, David. ;)

Either that, or he's trolling in strange places for pointers.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit I kind of liked the sound design/score for this. I hated everything else about it.