NEW YORK, NY: Atonement: Friend or Foible? (12/2/09)

Atonement is the story of two lovers separated by a felony. Although this sounds like just another story about jailbait, it is actually the story of how awful your relatives can really be when they disapprove of your significant other and testify against them in court.

The film adaptation of Atonement is very sad. I was so thoroughly dissatisfied with it because it’s too moody for me. ("Boo Hoo, I loved and lost because I have an obnoxious younger sibling. Boo Hoo.") I think there’s immense sadness but no variation. All good stories that move us must be equal parts of emotions. We connect on several levels of emotion and mentality, and stories that grip us on each level are the most powerful. Films and stories that get caught in moods are doomed (as I am often reminded- "mood" spelled backwards is "doom"). Atonement was not without bright spots, however. There were standout performances by Romola Garai (Briony at 18), Gina McKee (Nurse Drummond), and the ever Ms. Redgrave (Briony at 77). The book, however, is different.

I bought the book whilst I was going through a bourbon + The Notebook/Love Actually = catharsis stage. The book was so much better than that. McEwan is such a profoundly psychological writer- not for one moment did I misunderstand Briony or her motives as she gave her witness testimony. All the characters are afforded a point of view, which McEwan masterfully uses to tell the story, paralleling Briony's own journey as a writer. It is a must read. Part 3 is, I think, lacking in this essential depth of character understanding. However, parts 1, 2, and 4 are gorgeous. I won't say anymore. Must read.

The book gives an interesting lesson. For all my fourteen years in a Catholic school, I don't think I ever really meditated on the commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." It seemed like the least damaging commandment to a child. "Honor thy Mother and Father" was much more a Damnation Deal-breaker (inevitably the cause of my current lack of religion). In Atonement, however, bearing witness is the one commandment to which a child fails, to disastrous outcome.

Atonement is so powerful because the whole thing is based on a simple, adolescent screw-up. It's almost a parable, with the simplicity of the error, and the severity of the consequences. It made me stop mid-page and remember myself at age thirteen, and how unbearable I was as a human being, as all thirteen year olds are. Did anything I do alter the course of someone's life? Is puberty, the agonizing transition, really a growth at all, or a period for which we spend the rest of our lives apologizing? Do we become more careful as we become adults? How often do we fall short? How much of the thirteen year old we were, remains? What a frightening thought...