Atonement

borrowed from beeonfilm.blogspot.com

I am not one to turn this blog into a movie review site. I just wanted to share how my error in purchasing this DVD has been an opportune coincidence as I ended up liking its quite tragic turn out.

I purchased the DVD thinking it was a period piece ala Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility. Try as hard as I may, I can never finish these novels of Jane Austen. I would often start reading the book, only to stop midway. Eventually, a couple of years or so later, I would try to start reading it again, only to lose interest.

I have seen the movies though, and I always seem to typecast Keira Knightley into period films, thus. It had been my mission for quite so long to be able to watch Atonement, then. Finally, I was able to purchase a copy, and I ended up watching it after a busy day of teaching. Much to my surprise, it was set in World War II.

It's a World War II Romeo and Juliet drama. I don't really want to dwell on the storyline as I know a quick search on Wikipedia would help those seeking the plot out. I wanted to tell everybody that even though I hate dramas, I actually like this one.

It must be the tragedy. Robbie and Cecilia, never being able to really get the much deserved time that they wanted, all because of a sister who cried wolf sending Robbie to jail.

It was a love story that never was. In the end, Briony, the wicked sister who had so much to atone for felt that in order to do justice to her sister and sister's lover, she would fictionalize the ending of her autobiographical account, Atonement. Cecilia and Robbie died months apart during 1940.

She romanticized it. Now, I don't want to sound as if I am a person of faith, but I believe no such fiction was needed. You see, Robbie died in the war, and Cecilia died because of the bombings of London during the war, months apart. I want to see the coincidence of dying months apart as romantic in itself already. Neither needed to live long without the other. They did end up spending time together, they had an eternity of not waiting for a lifetime to be together.

Valentine's Day is still over a month away, and I am not churning out the sick-puppy eyed lovestruck addict just yet, but the movie struck me. It would be more difficult living a lifetime without that one great love of yours. So why bother. Pray for a coincidence, because if you're lucky enough, you don't have to spend a lifetime of waiting for an eternity to be together.

Hah, random thoughts.