Additional points to my review of Atonement I can't shoehorn into that Tumblr entry

[petronia]

(this one)

1. Jeebus, Cumberbatch, I enjoy chocolate martinis. I do not need aversion therapy; it does not constitute a problem. Please address this issue in future installments of Being Benedict Cumberbatch. Maybe in the upcoming season of Sherlock you can fall tragically off the lip of a chocolate fountain, and then Doctor Watson can rescue you, if you know what I mean.

2. Speaking of Martin Freeman, I have a working theory that the particular thing James McAvoy is good at is similar to the thing Martin Freeman is good at, which is to create in viewers this weird unshakeable pre-logical conviction that what you're seeing onscreen is A Real Person. It underlies the "character" layer, if you will - clay under fired lacquer - and does sort of bleed over between roles. I was thinking last night about the baffling-ness of Trek RPF and how the lead actors in AOS are really, really not like the characters they play**, but in XMFC... I'll have to think more about this. XD Anyway, this leads me to the obvious point of difference between McAvoy and Freeman, which is that a Martin Freeman character would have had a VERY different recovery from The Letter Mishap. I mean, up to where Briony interrupts them and it all spins to hell in a handbasket, I was sitting there like, is it just me or is this guy doing really well? That was an EPIC-level save, dudes.

3. EDIT -- forgot to ask: it is normal that there are a couple of fairly long scenes entirely in French, right? It's not that my copy is missing subtitles? XD;

4. EDIT2 -- the more I ponder the plot, the more I realize to my dissatisfaction that LORD PETER WIMSEY COULD'VE SOLVED THIS BITCH.


** Actually? Shatner is more like AOS!Kirk, and Pine is more like TOS!Kirk. I have no theories.

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I really like your tumblr review. I agree that the movie felt narrated. Actually, I thought it was narrated: in my memory of the movie, there's a a voiceover. But I just looked it up and no, there was no voiceover. It feels like the kind of movie that normally would have a voiceover, though.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the book so last night I hadn't digested the actual storyline, and ended up writing all about the extra-diagetic stuff. XD Thinking about it now, I feel like the first half of the story is better than the second half (the part Briony sets down from experience is better than the stuff she has to extrapolate XDD -- but I don't think that's intentional, or due to the movie). Like, it makes you think it's all going to be English country house and Ishiguro-stylee repressive, and then it delivers this PERFECT MAELSTROM of sex, UST stacked on top of wild hormones stacked on top of fascination/disgust/incomprehension stacked on top of humiliation** stacked on top of predatory deviance. The whole thing lasts 20 minutes and blows up like a gas leak. Then the rest of the movie goes into "sweeping tragic wartime romance a la The English Patient"... I know this is really not the point, but I almost feel like the second half was a novel, the first half was a play that should have kept Aristotelian unity and resolved itself in the country house. Possibly via Lord Peter Wimsey. XD;;


** If one had a strong embarrassment squick one prolly would've died before any of the Actual Bad Shiz happened, just at the idea of doing the 1930s equivalent of mistakenly sexting Keira Knightley.

[lesstraveled.livejournal.com]

I just watched this movie last week (two weeks ago?) and no, the scene in French was subtitled, at least with the DVD copy we had.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well, I did think that was weird. At least I speak French. XD;;

[ampersandals.livejournal.com]

I never had strong feelings about Atonement, but the cinematography was lush and beautiful, and I loved how the typing sounds became parts of the soundtrack, and I agree so much about past-and-present Briony. Like, I have vague memories of McAvoy and Keira - who were, admittedly the reasons I watched the film XD - being there, but it was really both Brionys who had lasting impressions on me.

AND LOL @ SURPRISE CUMBERBATCH. I found it hilarious that Atonement was the film that got Benedict cast as Sherlock, idk. XDDD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah - clearly I am no casting director, I would never have been like "yanno that dude would make a good Sherlock Holmes". XD;