Atonement Reviews
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
..you must admire the precision of Wright's craft and the accuracy of the performances of all the actors -- if you're a certain kind of moviegoer you likely won't care that you don't believe a word of it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 85/100
Top CriticWhere McEwan whispers, Wright shouts.
MSNBC
[U]ltimately, the movie amounts to rolling lawns, lovely costumes, and characters that simply fail to resonate.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Arizona Daily Star
The regret I felt the most while watching Atonement was not Briony's, but my own for having gotten myself stuck in two hours of drudgery.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Times-Picayune
Frustratingly uneven, struggling to maintain momentum as it lurches through extended lulls and indulges in cliched genre affectations.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
CinePassion
Figurines in a teacup set, shipped over in boxes labeled 'For your consideration'
Lessons of Darkness
A lushly shot, proficiently performed, and largely stultifying period piece that invites only mild, detached admiration.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
NewsBlaze
An overly-ambitious, ultimately unsatisfying adaptation of Ian McEwen's best-selling romance novel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Flipside Movie Emporium
Nothing ruins a pretty good movie more than calling it great, and with Atonement, even 'pretty good' feels like a stretch.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
NewsBlaze
Keira's tragic hottie pays for the guilty pleasure of an innocent stolen kiss from a servant's son (James McAvoy), with a lifetime of suffering and personal pain.
Film Threat
[T]his is a must to avoid, particularly because it appears to be selling the message that writing is, by nature, dishonest.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
The arc and resolution don't feel nearly as absorbing and devastating as McEwan's masterful novel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
eFilmCritic.com
Even without all of this bungled structure and flawed internal logic, Atonement still fizzles.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Projection Booth
A cinematic fellatio for anyone easily impressed by set and costume design.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
There's no sinking into "Atonement," no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Atonement is an almost classical example of how pointless, how diminishing, the transmutation of literature into film can be.
| Original Score: 2/5
Atonement is not only too polite but maddeningly orderly, resulting in a prettily cast, professionally performed, impeccably mounted bore.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Cinema Signals
Cleansing by self atonement doesn't hack it, and the resolution provided is something far less than satisfying.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Goatdog's Movies
Defined by grand cinematic gestures that go nowhere.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Filmcritic.com
The transition from imagined drama to reality grows tedious.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
