Atonement - film review

Just finished watching the film Atonement, courtesy of netflix, and based on the bestselling novel by Ian McEwan of the same name. I liked the film better than the novel, but that is not saying much since I despised the novel. My pal Wales, who read quite a bit of McEwan's earlier stuff, before he hit mainstream, told me once that she found McEwan to be a cold writer, who did not like people very much and certainly did not like his own characters.

His word choice, she said, was cold and distancing. I agree. He writes in what can best be described as a stand-offish academic style, which distances the reader from the characters to the extent that one feels as if one is judging them as opposed to living the story through them. It is an academic style of writing that I often feel is more about communicating the accomplishments and brilliance of the writer than it is communicating information or a story. Look, how brilliant I am, look at how great my vocabulary and sentence structure can be. Yet, if you look at the bare bones of the story, it's not all that interesting in of itself - it's a tale of two star-crossed lovers who can never be together, separated by War and class and the lie of a silly 13 year old girl. What is interesting and worth commenting on is the style, the word choice, and the point of view.

( major plot spoilers below )

Okay, off to spend the day with Wales. Not a film I highly recommend, but then I didn't think much of the book, either.