This stage version of Ian McEwan’s devastating class novel shows inspiring touches and the cast play adeptly, yet the tale’s emotional sweep feels underpowered ...

Cannes: Reed Van Dyk's intimate, psychologically astute, and true portrait of the human cost of U.S. imperial violence stars Hiam Abbass and Boyd Holbrook. This is a war film less ordinary, for it is ...

Saoirse Ronan's nuanced portrayal of Briony Tallis in Atonement captures the complexity of a character torn between ambition and guilt. Ronan's performance highlights the fine line between youthful ...

Early on in "Atonement," there's a battle so mired in the helter-skelter chaos of combat violence that it puts us right in the fog of war. Near the start of the conflict in Iraq in 2003, we've spent a ...

Atonement: Drama. Starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Directed by Joe Wright. (R. 130 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) At first, "Atonement" seems as though it's going to be one of those English ...

Ian McEwan is one of the most gifted literary storytellers alive—where storytelling means kinesis, momentum, prowl, suspense, charge. His paragraphs are mined with menace. He is a master of the ...