Afterburn
Having encouraged friends to read Atonement, then scolding them for even thinking of watching it on bootleg dvd, having myself snubbed the copies that have appeared everywhere in the last month, I finally cracked and got the dvd. In my defense I will say that I checked the schedule of movies opening this week, and all the reportedly wonderful movies we’ve been hearing about this awards season are NOT opening in theatres soon, I don’t know why. Way to draw people to the theatres, distributors.
So tonight I sat and watched Atonement. When watching film adaptations of beloved novels, one must prepare for the worst. It is a given that the movie will not be as satisfying as the book. Atonement presents special problems for the filmmakers: it is a novel about the novel, about writers, about factual truth and fictive truth. It is inherently self-conscious. Not surprisingly, this movie of a novel of the novel has been called “too clever” and “too self-conscious”.
In deference to the friends I have unjustly deprived, I will shut up about the film until we have all seen it at the cinema (I promised to bring them). I will only describe my visceral reaction. First, I was wiped out. It was as if I had been through something when in fact I had been sitting for two hours. Then I put another dvd in the player, but I couldn’t pay attention. I started pacing up and down my house, and after a kilometer or so realized I was famished. I had eaten dinner half an hour before seeing the movie. So I went out to the convenience store and bought chips, soda, and a chocolate bar, which I promptly inhaled. Then I sat around doing nothing. Clearly, the movie has had an impact. And if the prettiest of the season’s contenders has this effect, I expect nothing less than zombiehood after the heavyweights.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 30th, 2008 at 06:54
Just saw Atonement today here in Chicago. I don’t want to give spoilers, just wanted to say that I agree, it made an impact. Riveting imagery. Dreamlike. You really have to see it on the big screen. Very well crafted and very well acted.
I postponed reading the book because I wanted to view the film on its own terms. I’ll start reading now.
Wala lang- Keira Knightley has a stunning face but has no breasts.
January 30th, 2008 at 08:03
impactful movie, yes. now i don’t know if you’ve already seen There Will Be Blood, but if you’re considering watching it on bootleg DVD, NEVER! they screwed up the chronology especially towards the end. it will totally ruin the whole experience. nevertheless, i still think There Will Be Blood trumps Atonement.
January 30th, 2008 at 08:10
i had a case analysis presentation the morning my friend gave me his copy of Atonement. when i finally watched it, had to run the film twice. not because i didn’t understand it the first time, but because i was looking for certain favorite scenes in the book that the movie lack. i missed some lines i would have loved hearing in the movie. like that of a novelist playing God. and one more thing, the book was more concerned with description than with dialogues, more thoughts playing in the characters’ minds. so my rationalization is that one cannot completely put into picture McEwan’s creative imagination.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:14
I’ll give in to the bootleg then. It’s the distributors fault!
January 30th, 2008 at 12:05
Pretty movie but overrated! The middle part drags and the music is overbearing. But James McAvoy shines and was robbed of BA nom. The kid who plays young Briony is really good too.
Juno is a better movie. It’s fun, witty and sweet. :) Ellen Page ftw!
Haven’t seen No Country or There Will Be Blood but looking forward to. I’m gonna passed on Michael Clayton since I avoided anything with Clooney in it. LOL, Idk I just can’t stand his smug face, that’s all.
January 30th, 2008 at 22:53
Just watched No Country for Old Men. There’s a surprise in every turn of this movie. Juno is this year’s Little Miss Sunshine. I WATCH PIRATED MOVIES!!
January 31st, 2008 at 13:13
Hi Jessica. I also promised myself that I’ll try to catch Atonement in theaters when it premieres here in Feb. But yeah, I cracked too, though much sooner about 5 weeks ago. Don’t you think that the last part of the movie, the interview with the older Briony, was a nice alteration from the actual ending in the book? And the interviewer was Anthony Minghella! Which I thouht was cool.
February 1st, 2008 at 01:10
I will be checking out Atonement along with There Will Be Blood (still holding the torch for him, eh?) and Juno.
Yep, all on the silver screen. No pirated DVD for me!!
Which reminds me…in a thread post at PinoyExchange.com, someone said that Atonement was released early last December in Malaysia and Taiwan.
And these are non-English speaking countries!!!
WTF….
February 3rd, 2008 at 22:03
Well. I couldn’t finish the book in one sitting because it messes with my head too much. It is still doing that. I finished Chapter 11, started and finished reading a Pratchett book and now I’m having imaginary hives because I know I couldn’t put it off anymore. I must start reading Chapter 12, and soon.
March 23rd, 2008 at 23:54
I’ve finally watched it and it took me quite a long time to recover, too. I was stupid enough to pick up a book afterwards (it was Katherine Mansfield’s “In a German Pension”: simple, lighthearted, funny, and yet my mind kept on coming back to Cecilia, Robbie, and Briony), so I think I knew how you felt when you tried to watch another movie.
So I have to get a copy of the book from NBS on payday or else.