{"id":1171,"date":"2007-12-13T13:33:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-13T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/atonement-and-gender-in-story-telling\/"},"modified":"2007-12-13T13:33:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-13T13:33:00","slug":"atonement-and-gender-in-story-telling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/atonement-and-gender-in-story-telling.html","title":{"rendered":"Atonement and gender in story-telling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Atonement<\/a><\/i> was nominated for seven Golden Globes<\/a> today, so now is as good a time as any to quote this interesting \u2014 and semi-spoiler-ish \u2014 comment on the film that Brian D. Johnson<\/a> of Maclean\u2019s<\/i> magazine made at his blog last week:<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I\u2019m not exactly the most ardent reader (I\u2019ve lost the habit to movies), I\u2019m a huge fan of Ian McEwan. I\u2019ve read every word he\u2019s published. And we all know how easy it is to find fault with movies based on books you love. But Brit director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice<\/i>) and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons<\/i>) adapt McEwan\u2019s novel with a lush, eloquent drama that is admirably faithful to the original\u2014even if its emphatic tone, which pushed into melodrama, lacks McEwan\u2019s subtle touch. With his book, McEwan pulled off the considerable feat of writing in a woman\u2019s voice. (One of the novel\u2019s final twists is that the book we have been reading has been written, as an act of atonement, by the older, wiser Briony.) But this movie feels like it was directed by a man (which it was), and it recalls the opulent style of British period epics by the likes of David Lean and Merchant Ivory. The film\u2019s most effective sequences were the most girlish, Bronte-like ones\u2014all that devilish intrigue in and around the country manor. Once we get to the war, it seems that Wright is on a manly mission to show off, especially with a five-and-a-half minute continuous shot that wends its way through a surreal pageant of horror on the beach at Dunkirk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, Johnson ends his review by drawing comparisons between Atonement<\/i> and Anthony Minghella\u2019s The English Patient<\/a><\/i> (1996) \u2014 but he neglects to mention that Minghella himself appears in one of Atonement<\/i>\u2018s final scenes!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atonement was nominated for seven Golden Globes today, so now is as good a time as any to quote this interesting \u2014 and semi-spoiler-ish \u2014 comment on the film that Brian D. Johnson of Maclean\u2019s magazine made at his blog last week: Although I\u2019m not exactly the most ardent reader (I\u2019ve lost the habit to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAtonement and gender in story-telling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atonement was nominated for seven Golden Globes today, so now is as good a time as any to quote this interesting -- and semi-spoiler-ish -- comment on the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/atonement-and-gender-in-story-telling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atonement and gender in story-telling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Atonement was nominated for seven Golden Globes today, so now is as good a time as any to quote this interesting -- and semi-spoiler-ish -- comment on the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/atonement-and-gender-in-story-telling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-13T13:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R2Go1JDkcTI\/AAAAAAAAA7I\/yXtWfQLqYvg\/s400\/atonement4-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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