Years ago, while wandering a bookstore, I was drawn to a trade paperback of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, displayed face-out on the shelf. At the time, I was grappling with the very theme of atonement in my own work-in-progress. Then, there was the cover art, like a snapshot from my childhood—a black and white picture of a forlorn barefoot girl, lost in thought. Opening the book, I found a quote from Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s tale of a girl with a vividly gothic imagination and Ian McEwan’s promise to his readers about the tale he would unfold. Turning the page, I met his imaginative young character, Briony Tallis, and blushed as if I were reading an episode of my own life story—the budding playwright in pre-adolescence, believing she has created serious drama, presenting her manuscript to her mother, and cherishing her mother’s praise. Embarrassed and enthralled, I fell into the story.
Of course, when a reader admires a novel as much as I do Atonement, that reader may hesitate, as I did, to see the movie version. But now that I have seen it, my advice to hesitant booklovers is: buy a ticket, settle back in a darkened theater, and savor director Joe Wright’s lush film depiction of the novel’s time, place, and shattering emotions.
The story of Atonement begins in 1935 at a lavish country manor in England. Young Briony witnesses and misinterprets a few moments shared between her older sister Cecilia and a servant’s son, Robbie, setting in motion the tragic consequences for which Briony atones. Or does she? When someone asks me what the book is about, I find no easy, jacket-blurb sort of answer. McEwan’s writing offers layer upon layer of nuance and meaning. Shifting points of view reveal the shifting nature of truth. A film version of such a complex novel necessarily omits some layers and compresses some events. Still, screenwriter Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Atonement, Wright’s direction, and the cast’s superb performances capture the haunting beauty of the novel in a film that is a work of art in its own right. Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy portray Cecilia and Robbie, the lovers caught in the amber of Briony’s imagination as she, herself, ages from a privileged child (Saoirse Ronon) to a troubled young woman (Romola Garai) serving as a nurse in World War II, and, finally, to an aging novelist (Vanessa Redgrave) reflecting on her career.
In one segment of the novel omitted from the film, aspiring-writer Briony receives her first rejection letter. Like the book’s opening paragraph, that letter touched my writer’s nerve with a shock of recognition. Hadn’t I once received that letter, too? Among the fictitious editor’s comments to Briony is a recommendation to go beyond the “crystalline present moment” and set her characters in motion with “an underlying pull of simple narrative.” As a far from simple, multi-faceted story of concealment and revelation, Atonement, both in book and film, honors the editor’s advice, moving beyond the cowardice of stylish evasions and bravely laying bare the characters’ hearts.
Rosemary Poole-Carter
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sweet & Ironic--Away from Her
Perhaps Sarah Polley has an old soul. In her late twenties, she has written and directed a film based on Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”, depicting passion and longing within a 40-year marriage. In Polley’s film AWAY FROM HER, graceful Fiona (Julie Christie) succumbs to Alzheimer’s, while her husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) watches her disappear into the disease. Polley’s fidelity to the spirit of Munro’s poignant tale is evident in every aspect of the film—in casting, direction, cinematography, editing, and especially in the script. Grant’s memories and musings come to life on the screen in images and lines that echo the short story: “I never wanted to be away from her,” he says. “She had the spark of life.”
Polley began acting as a child, staring in the Ramona series, then the Avonlea series for television. As a young adult she has added writing and filmmaking to her list of accomplishments and has often chosen acting roles in independent films, including THE SWEET HEREAFTER, THE CLAIM, and THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS. Filming NO SUCH THING, Polley worked with Christie and envisioned her in the role of Fiona. In Christie’s youth, she won an Academy Award for her role in DARLING; now in her maturity, she is nominated for her role in AWAY FROM HER. Indeed, Christie’s performance shines deservingly within Polley’s well-crafted film, as the actor captures all the ages her character ever was, giving the audience a glimpse of timeless beauty, guided by a director who is wise beyond her years.
In her script, Polley embellishes the subtle humor of the short story, the moments that fleetingly lift us from the heartache. Through flashbacks we see Grant was not always such a devoted husband, and he suspects Fiona’s selective memory of their shared past may be her way of punishing him. At the Meadowlake facility, Fiona forms an attachment to another patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy), and one odd pairing leads to another when Grant seeks help from Aubrey’s pragmatic wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis). Polley’s added character development of other visiting family members and patients, particularly the addition of the demented former sportscaster who keeps up a running commentary of goings-on at Meadowlake, are inspired.
Reading “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and viewing AWAY FROM HER, I was reminded of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116—“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds . . .” As Fiona and Grant prepare to leave their house, he to take her to Meadowlake and come home alone, he thinks she looks “just like herself on this day”, and in the film he tells her just how she has always looked to him: “Direct and vague. Sweet and ironic.” The camera is on Christie’s face, each spoken word evident in her expression. Grant longs to call Fiona back to him but, instead, attempts to give her what she needs. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, “the way to love something is to realize that it could be lost.” So, a young filmmaker gives us a story of mature love—sweet and ironic.
Rosemary Poole-Carter
Polley began acting as a child, staring in the Ramona series, then the Avonlea series for television. As a young adult she has added writing and filmmaking to her list of accomplishments and has often chosen acting roles in independent films, including THE SWEET HEREAFTER, THE CLAIM, and THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS. Filming NO SUCH THING, Polley worked with Christie and envisioned her in the role of Fiona. In Christie’s youth, she won an Academy Award for her role in DARLING; now in her maturity, she is nominated for her role in AWAY FROM HER. Indeed, Christie’s performance shines deservingly within Polley’s well-crafted film, as the actor captures all the ages her character ever was, giving the audience a glimpse of timeless beauty, guided by a director who is wise beyond her years.
In her script, Polley embellishes the subtle humor of the short story, the moments that fleetingly lift us from the heartache. Through flashbacks we see Grant was not always such a devoted husband, and he suspects Fiona’s selective memory of their shared past may be her way of punishing him. At the Meadowlake facility, Fiona forms an attachment to another patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy), and one odd pairing leads to another when Grant seeks help from Aubrey’s pragmatic wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis). Polley’s added character development of other visiting family members and patients, particularly the addition of the demented former sportscaster who keeps up a running commentary of goings-on at Meadowlake, are inspired.
Reading “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and viewing AWAY FROM HER, I was reminded of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116—“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds . . .” As Fiona and Grant prepare to leave their house, he to take her to Meadowlake and come home alone, he thinks she looks “just like herself on this day”, and in the film he tells her just how she has always looked to him: “Direct and vague. Sweet and ironic.” The camera is on Christie’s face, each spoken word evident in her expression. Grant longs to call Fiona back to him but, instead, attempts to give her what she needs. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, “the way to love something is to realize that it could be lost.” So, a young filmmaker gives us a story of mature love—sweet and ironic.
Rosemary Poole-Carter
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