Atonement, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name, follows multiple strands all stemming from the same point of catastrophe.  When young Briony Tallis misidentifies the man she sees raping her cousin, she sends her sister’s innocent lover to prison and ultimately to the front lines of World War II.  As she comes to realize the gravity of what she’s done, she searches for redemption first as a nurse and later as a novelist trying to reconcile the past with the weight of what should have been.  Unfortunately, while the tale of two lovers desperate to be reunited and the effects of Briony’s guilt should be tinder for incendiary emotions, the film is oddly hollow and unmoving.  Atonement’s conclusion would have you question the connection between poisonous lies and the act of creating fiction, but I was left pondering whether the characters involved had inner lives at all.

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