Atonement in the UK.

Not quite two weeks ago, Atonement opened the Venice Film Festival; overall, the reviews were more than approving, and now the film's opened in the UK.

"This is Christopher Hampton's adaptation of the 2001 novel by Ian McEwan that was his breakthrough into serious bestsellerdom, and, it is widely believed, raised him above the Amis-McEwan-Barnes triumvirate into a premier league of his own: the greatest living English novelist," writes Peter Bradshaw. "Well, Hampton and director Joe Wright have certainly done McEwan proud with this lavish and spectacular screen version: they are really thinking big, in every sense, and the result is exhilarating."

Also in the Guardian, Esther Addley talks with James McAvoy and John Ezard and Sarah Crown report on another awards race altogether: "Ian McEwan is in the running to become only the third author to win the Man Booker prize for a second time, having secured a place on the shortlist [on Thursday] with On Chesil Beach. However, he is likely to face stiff competition from the virtually unknown New Zealand-born author Lloyd Jones, whose novel Mister Pip was installed as favorite for the £50,000 prize."

"Are the novels of Ian McEwan unfilmable?" asks Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman. "I ask only because, with the exception of The Cement Garden, his work has a habit of curdling en route from page to screen. What a strain it was enduring Enduring Love, and as for The Innocent - well, all I can say is that the filmmakers should have changed their plea. An adaptation of the highly regarded Atonement doesn't break the McEwan curse, but it offers some clues as to why this unlucky streak persists."

"All the cast are good, but it's [Keira] Knightley who knits everything together," writes Charlotte O'Sullivan in the Evening Standard. "In fact, her performance is a revelation."

"Let's be grateful for an intelligent, handsome adaptation of a McEwan novel - rare in itself - and praise a young director with visual ambition and a way with actors," writes the Independent's Anthony Quinn. "But let's not burden him with the hopes of the British film industry just yet."

Martin Hoyle in the Financial Times: "Here lies the flaw in this beautifully constructed artefact: the director can’t help standing back and admiring his own work, and an air of contrivance results."

Online viewing tips. Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Joe Wright in the Guardian.

Posted by dwhudson at September 9, 2007 3:50 PM