Atonement

Its the Oscar season and I choose to watch this to see if it is as good as the number of nominations it has.

The movie is up for 7 Oscars in the following categories:

• Best Achievement in Art Direction
• Best Achievement in Cinematography
• Best Achievement in Costume Design
• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
• Best Motion Picture of the Year
• Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

A lot of minor awards and certainly not a best picture calibre. The film is still nice to watch, and it talks about how a teenage girl tries to change the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Even though Keira Knightly is featured in the movie poster, she has a very weak role and is overshadowed by the 13 year old teen character who plays her younger sister. This young unknown actress Saoirse Ronan really shine in her role. I google her and she is just 14, and she certainly deserve a nomination for best supporting actress even though she is not likely to win, considering the other power weights. I say, her time will come.

The music feature in the movie deserve a mention here too. Dario Marianelli, the one behind the soundtrack is up and coming, he already won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture. In the movie, he has this unique use of an extraordinary percussion-like sound, the sound of an antique typewriter, to blend in nicely with the story. Whenever the actress uses the typewriter to pen her thoughts, you will hear the music blending in. In this modern computer age where you have keyboards that let you type silently, somehow the sound of those old typewriters has a certain kind of special appeal :)