Atonement (2007)

Joe Wright can’t resist a showy shot, and the long, unbroken walk across the beach in Atonement is the proof: it’s stunning, and you can feel it asking you to notice how stunning it is. Almost everything else lands. Saoirse Ronan plays Briony as a sharp, lonely kid with a stare that could cut glass, and you watch her accuse Robbie of something he didn’t do with a certainty that chills you. James McAvoy gives Robbie a quiet decency that makes every scene after that hurt. Keira Knightley plays Cecilia as proud and prickly, and her tense café reunion with McAvoy crackles with everything they never got to say. The typewriter keys clacking through the score turn the whole story into something being written as you watch. It made $129.3 million worldwide on a reported $30M. An 8.7 because it’s about how one wrong word can echo for a lifetime, and it never lets anybody off easy. $3,511 says you read the last page of your next novel first, just to make sure everyone’s okay.

What works: Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy and Keira Knightley are all superb, and the typewriter-driven score and gorgeous camera work make the story feel like it’s being written in front of you.

What doesn’t: The famous long take on the beach is a showpiece that knows it’s a showpiece, and the war stretch keeps the lovers apart long enough to lose some momentum.

Who it’s for: People who love a sweeping period romance that also wants to break their heart and make them think about who gets to tell a story.