Truth, Remorse - Atonement

Atonement (2007)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Mystery, War

Direction: Joe Wright

Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Ramola Garai

I usually don’t prefer to watch romance genre films irrespective of the language. My choices are mystery thrillers, movies with twisted ending, and sort of stuffs. There are around a dozen of high rated romance flicks in my laptop without even opening the folder for more than 2 years, occupying space simply. One among them ‘was’ Atonement. I watched it at last, a couple of days before. At first I thought it’s an ordinary love story. Yes it is a love story, but not as what I thought to be ordinary. It’s an extraordinary film made in recent years. 

We humans often commit mistakes, do misinterpretations, sometimes assume things to an extent that we blindly believe what we have witnessed are the truth. It may even bring unexpected and unbearable consequences to the persons involved. But we don’t let ourselves to at least try to know what has actually happened. Because, what if we are wrong? What if the things we believe are actually the other way around? Our ego does not let us accept our mistake. This happens with most of us. Doesn’t it? Well… the British romance mystery drama Atonement has a similar storyline, a story of how a blind mistake committed by a young girl Briony (Ronan) turns the lives of her elder sister Cecilia (Keira) and her lover Robbie (McAvoy) upside down. 

Atonement has an intricate but spectacular story, fantastic narrative style, terrific performances, and wonderful visuals. The continuous 5 minutes long war-torn Dunkirk beach scene is more than enough to speak about the film’s photography. It is breathtaking and one of the visually stunning scenes of all time. The camera movement inside the palatial mansion is also pretty good. The background score is very well effective and coherent. This is the first time I have seen the typewriter clanking sound being used in soundtrack in important scenes. This is really distinctive and absolutely praiseworthy. The direction by British director Joe Wright is remarkably good, followed by his previous film Pride and Prejudice. This marks second consecutive and successful collaboration between Keira and Wright. Adapted from the novel of the same name, it is considered to be one of the best adaptions till date.

Keira has an intense role which she has done perfectly, except that she smokes a lot on screen. Her role in Atonement is largely different from her earlier roles. She proves her mettle with strong acting throughout the film. James McAvoy is none different from Keira. He has also given his best shot. His performance adds more credibility to the significant Dunkirk scene. Both Keira and James have given one of their career best performances in Atonement. But the show stealing performance is from Saiorse Ronan, who played the young Briony, age 13. Briony is the vital character of the film which is actually played by three different actors in different ages. Ronan takes the role of young Briony, delivering a subtle, surprising and strikingly awesome class act, like a precious stone or gem that is not seen often. She earned an academy award nomination for best supporting actress at the age of 14 years itself, becoming the youngest. Ramola Garai plays the teenage Briony, who has a nearly equally good show to Ronan. Vanessa Redgrave who takes the role of an aged Briony, did the needed, though she appears for less than 10 minutes in the film.

From Left to Right : Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave as Briony Tallis

As said already, it’s not simply a romance film. Most of the romance films used to be of comedy-romance genre. If you expect it to be a movie like, a boy and girl falls in love, part their way and rejoice again, and sentimental stuffs, Atonement is not for you. It largely differs from those clichéd films in a way that it strikes you hard. It has situations that are painful sometimes, shocking at some other instances, and characters that are helpless and remorseful. A movie is successful if it manipulates you and leaves you with an impact even after hours after watching it. That’s what happened to me while I was watching this. Such kind of movies only becomes unforgettable for years. And Atonement is surely one such not-to-miss film.

My Rating: Do I need to tell you that I’m gonna give 10 out 10?!!!

The Others - Genuine thriller, no cheap scares...

The Others (2007)

Cast: Nicole Kidman, James Bently, Alakina Mann, Fionnula Flannagan.

Direction : Alejandro Amenábar 

 

I used to have confusion in identifying (not now) the Australian actresses Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman because of their strikingly similar appearance. Just like the giant ape starts to like Naomi in the film King Kong, I also started liking her from the moment I saw her in the same film. One day I saw a few scenes from the film The Others for the first time, and couldn’t beat the thought about its lead actress that, “is this the same girl whom Kong likes?” My friend clarified me they are different actors. King Kong’s actress is Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman is the lead actress here. I was amazed that they look almost exactly same. The same night I finished watching The Others. And it was really good. Yesterday night I saw it again and it is still good as the first time. 

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) is a single mother living in a lonely mansion in coastal England in the near end of World War II. She is badly waiting for the war to end soon so that she can be reunited with her husband who went to fight in the war. Her 2 children Anna (Alakina) and Nicholas (James) are about 6 to 8 years old and they have a strange and rare light sensitivity disease. They cannot be exposed to light brighter than a candle. Suddenly one day, 3 servants, an aging housekeeper Mrs. Bertha Mills, an old gardener Mr.  Edmund Tuttle and young maid Lydia who is a mute. They come and take the jobs voluntarily. Things turn after the arrival of the servants and their weird behavior which makes the rest of the film. 

The Others bears remarkably brilliant performances from Kidman and her on screen children. She captivates and scores by her clean and neat performance, as a fear-ridden, over caring mother who gives utmost care in keeping her children away from disease. Rest of the cast is also no different. They did what is required at their best, especially the young lad.

What makes The Others interesting is its very minimal cast, low lighting and a single location – the palatial mansion where they reside. Unlike most horror films having barrels of bloods and gory images, this is different from them that there are no cheap scares and not even a single drop of blood spilled. Spanish director Amenábar deserves a large applause for this. This is the most interesting part of the film. The fact that the children have a light sensitive disease itself gives a necessary dark and eerie setting to the film. His screenplay seems to be at a slightly slower pace for a thriller-horror. But the thrill and suspense never faded away from the beginning to the end of the film. For a film of horror – thriller genre, it is surely one of the best made, without leaving the viewers disappointed at the end.

My Rating: 9/10

Horror and Mystery perfectly blended - Angel Heart

Angel Heart (1987)

Cast: Mickey Rourke, Robert de Niro, Lisa Bonet

Director: Alan Parker

 

It’s exciting to see a movie with mystery and suspense right from the beginning to end of end credits. Fight Club, Seven and Mulholland drive are few examples to mention. It is even more exciting when a favorite actor has acted in it even if it is a small role. Angel Heart is one such, a relatively unknown and underrated cult movie. The film has Mickey Rourke in the lead role and my favorite star Robert de Niro in special appearance, the reason why I took special interest to watch it (I am a diehard fan of de Niro!!). 

Angel Heart is a perfect blend of mystery, horror and detective genre. The plot is set few years after the end of World War II, in the 1950s in which Harold ‘Harry’ Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a private detective from Brooklyn. He is hired by a wealthy but quite mysterious man Louis (de Niro) to find a singer named Johnny Favorite whether he is dead or alive. Throughout the course of his investigation, things get more and more bizarre when Harry unfolds something crucial and there is another knot waiting for him to tie around his neck, and get him into mess as if he is going to be transported to another world which has no return path.

Adapting the novel Fallen Angels, director Alan Parker has done a meticulous job of setting the extremely dark and scary environment full of secrets. It is a horror movie without any cheap scares. But the real scare elements are the visual and the music score. The visual presentation is distinctive and well matching to the film’s environment. The soundtrack scored by Trevor Jones is breathtaking, eerie and builds tension. The script is good with some really catchy dialogues. These aspects are well synchronized and leave the audience anticipating what may be an unusual and unexpected twisted ending.

Robert de Niro in Angel Heart

The film has a powerful acting. Rourke takes the lead as a chain smoking, least bothered private detective, giving a tremendous acting showing us the horror through his eyes. Initially he is reluctant to accept the job, but eventually agrees when Louis is ready to a lucrative sum. The ‘special appearance’ by de Niro as Louis is much special that, with only 10 to 15 minutes of screen presence out of 112 minutes duration, de Niro had given a stunning acting. This is one of his best in the line of Taxi Driver, The Godfather II, though not much popular among many. For those who have seen him as a gangster all these years in most of his movies, you people can see him in a completely different character, a role that he has done neither before nor after this film. When there is a slight lag in the screenplay, the gap is superbly filled by de Niro and Rourke’s sparkling acting. Rest of the cast also does their part quiet satisfactorily, mainly Lisa Bonet as the voodoo girl and Harry’s lover Epiphany, and Charlotte Rampling as Margaret, a fortune teller.  

I wonder how movies like this are underrated despite having near perfection in almost every aspect. Those who like the above mentioned genre and the fans of de Niro who haven’t seen it yet, will surely enjoy this thrill ride. Please do watch fully till the end credits are over.

My Rating: 8.8/10