The new movie Atonement, starring Keira Knightley (pictured), focuses on the destruction wrought by a false sexual assault accusation. The movie trailer can be seen here or below. The film’s release date is December 7. A description of the film’s plot from Wikipedia is below (warning, plot spoilers):
“The film is at first set in the UK in the 1930s. 13-year-old Briony has a crush on Robbie, who is in love with Briony’s sister Cecilia. Through her window, she sees Cecilia jump into a fountain in the presence of Robbie, which Briony understands as a flirtation between them.
“Robbie asks Briony to give a letter to Cecilia, thinking it’s an apology he’s written. Briony reads it, but it’s not an apology; it’s a sexually explicit letter that Robbie had also written but never intended on showing to anyone. Briony thinks Robbie is a pervert. She later discovers Cecilia and Robbie having sex in the library (they did this after finally confessing their love for each other). That same night, Cecilia’s and Briony’s cousin Lola Quincey is sexually assaulted by Paul Marshall, a guest staying at the house. Briony assumes Robbie was the culprit, and pretends to have seen him do it. As a result Robbie is arrested and convicted.
“After three years in jail Robbie has the option to go into the army, to fight in France against the Nazi army (WWII, May 1940), which he does. Cecilia left her family after Robbie’s arrest and works as a nurse in London. Robbie and Cecilia meet briefly at a cafe before he leaves, and make plans to reunite at a cabin by the sea.
Robbie and Cecilia write to each other. In one of her letters, Cecilia tells him that Briony, to whom she has not spoken in years, has sent her a letter saying she wants to see her because she’s sorry for what she did. Robbie is in Dunkirk at the French northwest coast, sick and hoping to return to England on the next ship in the Dunkirk evacuation.
“Briony has given up her Cambridge dreams and is also working as a nurse, trying to find atonement for her sin. She starts writing a book, ‘about a girl that sees something through her window and misunderstands it’. She discovers Lola is marrying Paul Marshall and attends the wedding, but doesn’t dare to interrupt the ceremony. Lola recognises her and looks away in shame.
“Briony visits Cecilia and Robbie, who is back from the war, and promises to tell the truth to her family and the authorities.
“The film then makes the transition to an old Briony being interviewed about a book she’s written, called Atonement. She says it will be her last because she’s dying, but in a way it’s also her first because she had been writing it since the 1940s, but never could find a way to finish it. She reveals that she never had the courage to go see her sister and apologise, and the happy ending of the book never happened as Robbie died in France and Cecilia drowned during the bombing of an underground station. She wanted to give them the happy ending they never had, after living a life of guilt for what she’d done.”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAD1pt8yXfk]