Last year, I rented the movie Atonement and thoroughly enjoyed it. The score is amazing, definitely deserving of the Academy Award, and the story is breathtakingly bittersweet, perhaps depressing in the best possible sense of the word. While it lived up the the hype, I was a bit disappointed with Kiera Knightly. Of course, her beauty is an asset that can’t be overlooked, but I’ve never been particularly pleased with her acting performance. She has always seemed to me more like an actress on set, dressed in a good costume. In this movie, the stand-out is her backless green dress:
I recently purchased the book, written by Ian McEwan and published in 2001. Most of all, I wanted to imagine the character of Cecilia Tallis reacting like a real person. The first few pages are full of glowing critical quotes, and I’ll add my own. This is the best modern chick-lit I’ve read. Toss away your Nicholas Sparks, because this gem has beautiful imagery, diction, and storytelling that not even film could recreate entirely. The beginning chapters, which seemed slightly farfetched in the motion picture, were much more believable in print.
I won’t discredit the movie, it was remarkably done and worthy of the critical attention, but I strongly suggest the book to any Kiera Knightly skeptics, and every fan of Austen and Bronte novels.
I found Kiera disappointing in this too – not least that her accent sounded a huge deal more contrived than McAvoy’s, when you would think it should be harder for him…
I was recently watching some of the extras from POTC again, and she made some comment about Elizabeth in that being a modern girl despite it being (more or less!) a period piece. I am starting to wonder if this is my beef with her. I thought she was promising in Bend It, and she’s always better than I expect in POTC (having watched other things I always come to it thinking she will be terrible), but I can’t buy into her in anything that is truly period – she comes off too much the modern girl. Maybe it’s me.
Oh well, in the joyous campfest that is Pirates I can probably forgive her Atonement.*
*it may take longer for me to forgive her P&P…
I agree, I liked Bend it, but she was about 17 then.
I think she was still only about 17 in Pirates? I forget.
I’m rather hoping she gets some more modern gal stuff to do again so I can actually enjoy it; I’m not sure I’m ever going to buy in to her as anything even remotely historical. She has always come across in interviews and stuff as being a decent lass so I always feel kind of mean when I think she is crappy in movies *laughs*