Water, Guilt, and Atonement in Joe Wright's 2007 Film

Opening Shot and Narrative Frame

Joe Wright's 2007 Atonement opens with a shot of the home of Briony and her family in miniature — a replica of the mansion estate where the main characters live and work in England, 1935. The shot pulls back as the keys of a typewriter are heard clacking away. Prior to this, the clacks coincide with the appearance of text on-screen announcing both the title and setting of the film, and the shift from non-diegetic to diegetic sound is the first of many surprises in this cleverly crafted period piece. Wright's command of the material is as impressive as his work in Pride and Prejudice and as mesmerizing as it would later be in Anna Karenina.

The whole of the film, which is "a story about storytelling" (Santas, Wilson, Colavito, Baker 60), is foreshadowed in one subtle pull-back: the camera, focused squarely on the miniature dollhouse replica of the homestead, backs up to reveal a line of animal play toys marching in a row away from the house towards some ark-like object off-screen. Yet — as the camera pans — another reveal emerges: the "ark" is twelve-year-old Briony, whose key tapping is the source of the clackety-clack. She embodies, in her own efforts to be a young playwright, the preservation of life, just as Noah did with his building of the ark. Symbolic references such as this are dropped like subtle clues, making an intelligent and thematic appeal to film-goers yearning for a more literary approach to cinema. The effect is one of the most subtle yet engaging hints as to who Briony is and what she will become: her lifelong work as an author — which forms the substance of Atonement — will be her attempt to preserve or "save" what she herself, in her childish innocence and cruelty, was half-guilty of destroying.

Briony, Robbie, and the Eruption of Desire

The film is centered on Briony, an intensely creative and curious girl with a flair for the dramatic. Her attention is caught by Robbie, the son of a worker on the estate. Robbie is in love with Cecilia (played deftly by Keira Knightley), and it is at the fountain one afternoon that their love — displayed antagonistically at first — literally springs forth after Cecilia sheds the majority of her clothes to retrieve a broken piece of pottery that has fallen into the water. Her strip tease and Robbie's courteous yet obviously attracted deference (Robbie is played with all the charm, charisma, conflict, and pent-up frustration typical of a James McAvoy performance) are enough to fuel the library lovemaking that will ensue minutes later in the film, after a jokingly erotic letter is accidentally delivered to Cecilia and the tease is reversed, leading to an obvious eruption of desire on her part as well.

In short, the two fall in love and consummate their feelings before the shocked eyes of Briony, who witnesses both the fountain scene and the library encounter. She is hurt and confused, and later, when questions about a rape arise, Briony identifies Robbie as the perpetrator — an act of revenge. Robbie is innocent, but he goes to prison for four years.

Water as Symbolic Motif

The seemingly effortless way in which Wright manages this series of dramatic events is remarkable. The use of water, both as a thematic element and a symbolic motif, plays an integral part. As Peter Travers states, "Atonement sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak, and ravishing romance" — and "waves" is apt. Roger Ebert similarly notes that the "scenes have floated effortlessly," and part of the reason for this quality is Wright's use of water as a recurring motif. Water is the element pivotal to the transformation of the relationship between Cecilia and Robbie at the fountain: without it, the erotic tension between the two would most likely have continued to simmer just below the surface. Because Cecilia dives in, she goes into the water as one person and emerges as quite another — before, a somewhat cruel and teasing young woman; after, someone awakened by the awareness of flesh-and-blood desire and the obvious effect she has on Robbie.

Water returns in the next scene as Cecilia is teased by her older brother and his friend at the lake. Bored, affronted, and running from her feelings, she dives into the water to avoid the question put to her — "Has something happened between you and Robbie?" — and, making a splash with her swimming cap on (a stylish nod to Wright's penchant for period detail), she attempts to retrieve her former self. Water thus becomes a portal through which the characters weave in and out of innocence and experience, guilt and redemption. The implied ark imagery carries all the connotative and denotative meanings that water holds: both as punisher, in the form of the biblical flood, and as cleanser, in the form of washing away sin. Here, however, water functions as a cinematic motif, stringing scenes together and revealing the way in which characters wrestle with their interior lives.

Conclusion: Longing, Loss, and Redemption

Wright's Atonement is an exploration of what it means to be young, in love, in hate, in over your head, and desperately in need of salvation. Briony's atonement becomes the craft by which the audience is given a glimpse into a world and relationship that might have been, even as Wright takes care to give us the actuality as well. In the end, we are torn between happiness and sadness, experiencing that same longing that the waters of the seashore inspire, wanting the good end for all involved in Atonement.

Works Cited

Ebert, Roger. "Atonement." RogerEbert.com, 6 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Travers, Peter. "Atonement." Rolling Stone, 14 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Santas, Constantine, James Wilson, Maria Colavito, and Djoymi Baker. The Encyclopedia of Epic Films. UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Print.

Wright, Joe, dir. Atonement. UK: Studio Canal. Film.