Before I begin, I must admit that I was not a huge fan of this book. However, I believe that the film can be judged as to whether it does the book any justice as both are very popular.
Atonement is set in England before the Second World War. Although there is a range of different characters, the three which it follows are Briony Tallis, her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner. The book starts on a summer afternoon where a decision which Briony makes will change their lives. Briony will then spend the rest of her life atoning for the mistake she made.
The book focuses on the same event but from different characters’ viewpoints. For example, it would be from the point of view of Briony and would then show the same event but how Cecilia sees it and then how Robbie sees it. The book deals with this very well, being able to explain how each view differs and the effect that this has on the characters.
The film does this fairly well, although it could not provide the same level of description which the book does. The film shows how the different events change the characters’ perceptions of each other very well in a way which makes the viewer understand everything that happens.
One thing which the film does well is tell the story in a very short space of time. Normally, when there is a book which is being made into a film, the biggest worry is exactly how much of the book will not be included. Even though the book is over 300 pages, a lot of space is taken up by description of setting or describing a character’s thoughts. In the film, the setting takes away a lot of the description which would shorten the book anyway but also shows, by way of writing letters and conversations, how opinions change.
This was one of the reasons why I was not a fan of the book. The amount of description was sometimes unnecessary and if reading the book quickly the surprise at the end could be easily missed. Although I did not enjoy the book, I did enjoy the film. The way that characters are developed is shown very well and it does not exclude lot of what is included in the book, only minor details. By being true to the original story and still providing the same level of description which makes the plot easy to follow, I believe that this film does do justice to the book and is worth watching.