Atonement | James McAvoy and Keira Knightley's Happy Ending

[@Varekai0723]

This ending is like a sledgehammer to your gut. Absolutely devastating.

[@arq.ignacioalaniz2772]

Cuando entendi la novela me quedo un sentimiento amargo de cosa inevitable...de como el amor a veces...es algo imposible.

[@ljc3484]

A minor point & not meant to be funny: her character is completely trapped in her past, part of her hoping it will turn out differently one day: she’s got the same hairstyle. That’s so accurate to people affected by trauma, they just don’t grow up.

[@AvicSubfusca]

An astute and accurate observation!!

[@akroodz]

Well trauma is literally your brain taking screenshots of every little thing that traumatises you so yeah it's very hard to even realise let alone deal with

[@frankinsaneandmyrrh1202]

I've thought the same about her hairstyle. but I couldn't decide if it was making a point about her being stuck or simply a way for the film makers to make her look like the same person lol

[@trinaq]

This ending ripped me apart the first time I watched it, and still continues to do so to this very day. 💔😿

[@zarayaneva]

Absolutely accurately put - it tears you, kinda like I would imagine if a bomb blew up near you, the shock, confusion, pain...

[@zanderxander3581]

It’s so very sad

[@pumkinpie27]

Same 😢 . The only thing I could do is take that ending in the book as them together on the other side. Agony of love.

[@realme-pw2lc]

same. It's the fact that what she did was so hurendous yet she gets to live the life she doesn't deserve.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me.

[@evakorpa]

Watching this movie for the first time absolutely devastated me. After a few years I decided to watch it again and after the ending I was like "Why did I do this to myself again"?

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. The works of art, like this, that dare to rip the very core of its alleged heart and expose itself, inspire me. They inspire me to ask myself, how many grand lies have you lived by, Dan? How many fabrications have you held to your heart for so long you began to believe them and live by them? It's sobering when I've stopped my drudge of stomping through the days for just a moment to really ask myself that question.

[@wingberry123]

I was thinking of rewatching it. I loved the chemistry between Keira and James here. Then, I remembered how much I disliked Saoirse's role here. I think I'll put a hold on watching it again.

[@lizziebkennedy7505]

It never goes away

[@lizziebkennedy7505]

@@wingberry123but Briony is a full, authentic character

[@kn5715]

I watched this film when it came out. I wondered out of the cinema in a shocked daze and cried all the way home. I told myself I could never watch this film again because of how devastating it was.

[@MicaRayan]

Keira is so photogenic. The editing were so crisp and I love this movie forever.

[@vpalos]

One thing I realised after seeing the end revelation that the meet they had was only from Briony's imagination, is that - had they lived - I think they would have forgiven her instantly and would have never held a grudge. They way they acted when Briony asked for forgiveness was simply her own way of punishing herself by imagining them being harsh with her. In reality, I think they both never hated her.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me.

[@annav2648]

I love your comment, so insightful. I like to think that as well from now on

[@AT-jm4dl]

Whoa...what? I just finished the book. Is it possible that the next to last chapter of the book was all a figment of Briony's imagination? She never met up with Cece and Billy in London and apologized go them? Very interesting take. Now I'm going to be thinking about his for a while.

[@asmrcarousel]

She couldn’t forgive herself so she couldn’t have them forgive her, not even in her fiction. It shows how miserable she was about the role she played in their tragedy.

[@zyxw2000]

@@AT-jm4dl No, she never met with Cecelia and Robbie. They were both dead by war's end.

[@cradle177]

It’s crazy how a lie can change and ruin someone’s life. Can’t imagine living with the pain of knowing how you ruined the life of a sibling by being a stupid child.

[@lizziebkennedy7505]

And his life. Two lives

[@Leonnie13]

This is why “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness” is among the 10 Commandments.

[@Leonnie13]

@e-w-4174 My point is that we think lying is no big deal because we don’t often see that it has a ripple effect that can ruin lives. God wants us to understand that even the littlest sin is evil and destructive. But here we are minimizing it again and losing the entire point.

[@ranakeen9884]

There are a lot of people who tell lies about a person intentionally to hurt them and ruin their lives. I’m being stalked by a narcissist who has told god only knows what lies in order to harm me personally and financially for decades now. I am absolutely certain they feel no remorse whatsoever for the damages they inflicted on me but rather, delight and revel in the pain they have caused me.

[@Supersquishyawesomeness]

@Nopenopenope6969do you think that’s what the commandments were intended to do? I feel sorry for people like you.

[@feedthesnake3394]

this entire movie doesn't land without this performance by redgrave.

[@seraphik]

so beautifully put. i saw this when i was a kid, with a couple of my friends. it was a bit too slow for us and the deliberately understated narrative, which often left out key details until much later, left us confused. so for most of the movie we were just talking and laughing about how lost we were. then this scene began, and we were all speechless. just riveted. it all came together before our eyes in the space of a single unforgettable monologue, and we realized we'd been watching an absolute masterpiece all along.

[@atomicwendy]

this film is devastating. it hurts, deeply.

[@innocentnemesis3519]

I’m here crying 🤧🥲

[@annafrese]

It took me 10 years and a couple of other amazing Saoirse's roles to actually forgive her for Atonement. I could not separate her from the character, I avoided her for as long as I could. My heart was wrecked.

[@minuit6305]

You mean the actress?

[@do7171]

Сирша... Я посмотрела практически все её роли задолго до просмотра Искупления.., я заново полюбила работу в Бруклин" и все ирландские, шотландские песни и актеры . И конечно радовалась как ребенок, когда увидела в клипе Эдвардом Шираном.

[@GrumpyDynamo]

I liked her in grand Budapest

[@Hatsepari]

Same. I knew it from the start that's simply, purely outstanding performance, but still, I had a really hard time to wrap it up in my head and forgive Saoirse, and Juno (Lola) as well. I was so furious, a nonverbal, dead silent rage. I had to force myself to watch their other movies to find an excuse to forgive and forget them, to let things go. And I'm glad I did. However... it took almost all my courage to watch this movie again recently. It's so beautiful, but also desperately haunting, and it's so hard, so hard to hold up my tears. I sobbed, uncontrollably, each time those pale blue eyes reflects mine.

[@Perhaps064]

Image how I feel when Benedict Cumberbach was cast as Dr Strange.

[@theo67-ft3yx]

Vanessa Redgrave is captivating in this snippet. Definitely want to watch the movie now.

[@TheWorldisQuietHere3]

Don't do it, it will destroy you! haha

[@jlasf]

Unfortunately, this is a surprise ending.

[@KK-fi6ms]

Atonement is one my most beloved movies that I never watched a second time. I could not bear it. Not only was it a cinematic masterpiece, it also introduced me to some of my favorite actors - James Mc Avoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juno Temple, all of whose careers I continue to follow. I would include Kiera Knightly, but I already knew her from Bend It Like Beckham.

[@lizziebkennedy7505]

Have you read the book

[@lvlysticgirl]

You took the words right out of my mouth! Same! One and done!!

[@sandysai4350]

I was furious with Briony when I read this book as a teenager but only as an adult I realized that she did her best to process the guilt and channeled her grief into writing. What else can you do to make amends for a mistake you made as a child?

[@findingkelly]

Well, she had many many many years to tell the truth about what she saw. I would.

[@zitronentee]

​​@@findingkelly The truth that will also destroy some other lives involved. The fact that everyone involved chose to believe a child's lie and dirtied their hands. On the other hand, Briony never moved on from her guilt.

[@findingkelly]

@@zitronentee From what I understand, it also seems that they chose to believe a lie, realized they made a mistake, and then turned the other way, but I could be reading into it. The truth is still the truth. However people react to it is their choice.

[@tamielynne7374]

She was still old enough to know right from wrong as a kid. She was a preteen. And accusing someone of rape is a serious accusation. Even back then it was serious. There is no excuse for her evil behavior.

[@sandysai4350]

@@tamielynne7374 I disagree. Labeling 13 "preteen" doesn't make her any mature. It was a childish mistake that she repented for in her own way.

[@morganwhite2176]

Everyone on here saying she isn’t sincere, has not studied the book on a scholarly level. I teach it at University. She writes them a happy ending because it’s the only atonement she can possibly come up with, after sacrificing her whole life in nursing and throwing away any chance she had for happiness herself out of guilt. We are not meant to love the character, but it was written to see who can get off their high horse and understand how a mistake by a child can impact and break everyone’s life, including their own. Runner up to the booker prize, so well written. Meant to be soul searching for all of us. Think about your own lives, the timing, if you had not been so lucky to be able to turn around all of your own mistakes. Thats what it’s about.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. The works of art, like this, that dare to rip the very core of its alleged heart and expose itself, inspire me. They inspire me to ask myself, how many grand lies have you lived by, Dan? How many fabrications have you held to your heart for so long you began to believe them and live by them? It's sobering when I've stopped my drudge of stomping through the days for just a moment to really ask myself that question.

[@VV-nz4dv]

thanks. how can people miss the point of the book when it is on the title. She made a terrible mistake that haunted her all her life and could not find peace ever because of what she did. rather than judge the character i think we're meant to empathize with them.

[@davejlh4988]

I agree with you and I always felt that the one way they could have conveyed her guilt and sincerity more convincingly was to make this scene far more emotional, which is typically what usually happens in a film like this and I have always wondered whether they filmed other versions of this scene where the actor was far more visibly upset. However I actually think the stoicism displayed by the actor is what makes it so convincing, partly because I have always been in awe of the way that generation were able to deal with such tragedy so stoically. Also I feel that as a nurse she has truly realised the horrors of war and although her jealous mistake as a child had such awful consequences she has come to realise that they were all ultimately victims of the war itself.

[@FranSanTeeth90]

Sorry, but there was something grievously wrong with as a child. Ok, so you teach lit, what do you know about childhood development? See, the question isn't *would most children tell a lie like that*? Hmm, occasionally yes. The question is *COULD most children maintain a lie like that*? And the answer is an emphatic and underlined 'no'. At some point way before old age their innate sense of right or extreme guilt would win out and they would tell... somebody. It is because of her vascular dementia that her ego vs just ness struggle has finally come to its long delayed end. This is not uncommon for cluster b types. The narc, sociopath grows old and becomes a delight to live with. Indeed a "second childhood". She's a sociopath who's simply been healed by time.

[@SuperFosterMom]

@@FranSanTeeth90are you aware this is fiction

[@DarkWingsAscending]

this movie broke me. I haven't been able to watch it again.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. I've watched the movie six times, and each time I feel invigored.

[@ljc3484]

Yes, it’s not a place I want to visit again.

[@LizC-ef4jo]

Yes, the ending is a real revelation - and changes everything we thought we (the reader) knew - as the author obviously intended. To me, the fictional meeting between the protagonists while, in one sense a "lie", in another sense, is wholly true - it's a testament to the power & healing of Art, in the face of the unbearable suffering of Reality.

[@adelemcg69]

Crying watching it now. This ending broke me when I first watched the movie and continues to do so......

[@rhanedsd]

This movie just killed me. All of it sad, depressing, with mcavoy's character finding the school girls in the forest., then the authors fateful admision. Blimey. Makes bawl just thinking about it

[@K1rkles]

blimey

[@ginaswellnessdiaries7491]

He found the twins, no schoolgirls.

[@susanahoakenshield1293]

What an art Vanessa Redgrave has!

[@LiamBrannelly]

Old school, they don't make them like this anymore. She has class, style and SO much depth to her method.

[@kumoniwannaleiya4900]

I love how the entire story revolves around one word that ends up destroying so many lives. I've seen this film 3 or 4 times and James McAvoy's face turns me into a cooing, sighing teenage girl every time.

[@AnnCronin-ds6pu]

My favourite book. Also the long single continuous beach shot in the movie is outstanding. The men singing still touches my soul every time I rewatch.

[@johnoh1374]

after all these years, the ending is still heartbreaking, Redgrave at her finest

[@julianleft4662]

5:59 what a moment and the cinematography + the incredible score by Marianelli... and then at 6:29 ... that seagul sound perfectly dropped in the high note... Just genius stuff.

[@lenawalters1866]

When we are children we see "truth" as one solid thing that will save everything, fix everything, make everything right. Briony realized, too late, that her truth was wrong but more then that, it was accepted so readily as truth by everyone else because it was convenient and easy for the family. Truth and evidence and slippery in real life, readily misconstrued, misunderstood, dismissed. The more she tried to write the truth, the more authentic she tried to make the story, the less like a story it became. Because in real life there are no arcs and patterns, no foreshadowing, no catharsis. In real life people get accused of crimes they didn't commit and don't receive justice, lovers are parted and never reunited, despicable people never get their comeuppance. And so she chose to make a narrative choice as an author and write a more memorable story to strive for and not the real thing that happened. Something i feel was an interesting choice, the event that killed Cecilia is real, Balham station did flood due to the Blitz but the date is wring (both in the books and the film). This wiuld have been very easy to research so i think it was intentional. It shows really that there is no such thing as a perfectly researched bit of fiction that reflects reality. Reality you remember is not the reality someone else remembers. Its not the reality someone chooses to remember. We are all stuck living with the choices me made in a reality of our own. Briony's atonement is her whole life living with this fact and the realization that she will never convince the world of it. So instead she chose to fictionalize it. Ironically it's what children do when they play. When some game or a story doesn't go their way they shout "redo" and start over. Create a better end. She made a mistake in childhood, spent her adult life unable to fix it and in the end reached into childhood to process it. There are some things we can't fix.

[@innocentnemesis3519]

Beautiful summary.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. The works of art, like this, that dare to rip the very core of its alleged heart and expose itself, inspire me. They inspire me to ask myself, how many grand lies have you lived by, Dan? How many fabrications have you held to your heart for so long you began to believe them and live by them? It's sobering when I've stopped my cycles of living through the days for a moment to really ask myself that question.

[@GerardGordon-bu9gf]

That was a brilliant summary, truly! There are things that are unfixable and we use fantasy to escape that painful truth .

[@indigocheetah4172]

An excellent précis. , thank you.

[@chryscroc]

This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read 🥲

[@jackiep594]

Life is pitiless, and that is why we have writing: rhymes and metaphor and beauty to make up for the failure of reality

[@surette2012]

Yep. even art can’t seem to clean the bleakness and suffering off of itself. The Harsh truth is always there.😭 art is gilded and trying to make sense of itself, life doesn’t have that sense and pattern we wish it did.

[@13olibrown]

Can we just pause to appreciate Vanessa Redgrave’s acting here. So much poignancy and complexity. Truly masterful and perfect for the role of Bryony trying to justify herself and atone for her sin/mistake made as a child with all the horror it caused.

[@zyxw2000]

One of the great film and stage actresses of our time. I've been watching her for 50 years.

[@amiller8023]

Vanessa Redgreave almost steals the movie in the last ten minutes. A brilliant performance 🎉

[@franniej.3110]

This movie will stay with me forever

[@merlin9943]

And if it had been a truly happy ending, it never would have.

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. The works of art, like this, that dare to rip the very core of its alleged heart and expose itself, inspire me. They inspire me to ask myself, how many grand lies have you lived by, Dan? How many fabrications have you held to your heart for so long you began to believe them and live by them? It's sobering when I've stopped my drudge of stomping through the days for just a moment to really ask myself that question.

[@nasraali8801]

I still haven't forgiven Saorise Ronan for this and I don't think I ever will LMAO she's too good an actress

[@LayllasLocker]

Same lol XD

[@ayumis5452]

as much as I admire her acting ability today, I still slightly dislike her because of Atonement😂

[@kepecos]

Watch The Lovely Bones and you'll forgive her anything.

[@nasraali8801]

@@kepecos oh i’ve seen it. unfortunately i watched this movie a while after and she pisses me off to this day lol. love her movies but sometimes i remember atonement and then get upset all over again 😭

[@kepecos]

@@nasraali8801 absolutely agreed! Such amazing actors truly become and embody the villains they play, which means they are just super good at their jobs. AND, seeing good actors behave in such horrible and say such horrible things is so difficult to bear because to us, they ARE that horrible character!!!

[@colerainfan1143]

After all these years, still heartbreaking. What an unforgettable story, and movie.

[@viethungvu8327]

Mrs. Redgrave 's acting is so amazinggggg.

[@zyxw2000]

One of the great film and stage actresses of our time. I've been watching her for 50 years.

[@paddingtonbrown6703]

Atonement is the most beautiful and haunting film I've ever seen yet I cannot bring myself to watch it twice. I watched this clip today and it opened all wounds.

[@MichaelRe-c7q]

This movie was incredibly underrated. In my opnion a master piece of beauty and pain.

[@geetraldinha]

Not underrated at all. It's a box office success. Got praised left and right. Won many prestigious awards.

[@aydenkelly6274]

I thought Briony's claim about "giving them their happiness" was just another evasion: she centred herself in every instance and, in the book, presented her character as having courageously atoned for the wrong she had done them as a child, when actually she had lacked the courage and missed the opportunity to do it in real life.

[@mikebasil4832]

Saoirse, Romola and Vanessa all deserve congratulations for bringing the most complex character of Briony to life.

[@ckotcher1]

Makes me cry everytime. I had a similar childhood where I was separated from my soulmate around the same age as these two. We met at 15 and 16 and torn apart by early 20’s. We never got the happy ending we so longed for 💔😞 And I’ve never loved like that again. We were both young and beautiful like Keira and James only we both had blonde hair. We also didn’t suffer melodramatic betrayals by siblings and separated by war and death.. to me that’s almost more “romanticized”. Luke a Hemingway novel. No we were separated not by death, but by life. But gutted nonetheless and never really got over it. We are both single and alone now. I never married or had kids…. Maybe in the next life God Will have the happy ending we both so longed for and deserved.

[@phylosikos]

Marry that man now!

[@blue7lvn245]

Why did life separate yall

[@ckotcher1]

@@blue7lvn245 great… I just left you a super long reply, and poured my heart out and fuc’ing KZbin won’t let me send it. 😡😡😡😡 there’s 20 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. FU S C R E W TUBE

[@Slow-wipe]

Absolute brilliant piece of acting

[@marlenedufour4744]

The casting of this movie is absolutely amazing, And for once they respect the colors of the eyes👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt]

My girlfriend Maria used to love this film. We saw it together and she cried. Every time i watch it, i remember of her. Feelings are nice if you know how to handle them.

[@shaybugler9577]

I think Bryony is a fascinating and polarising character which is a sign of great writing and film making. It was never the authors intention to condemn Bryony or for the readers to simply hate her or pity her. The author is inviting the readers to examine Bryony, hold a mirror up to ourselves to examine our own mistakes; misunderstandings; failings in life and our attempts at make amends for our own wrong doings. Untimately, Bryony is not a bad person. Infact, she displays a great deal of genuine grief; regret; remorse and humanity. If she were a narcissist, she would never had felt bad, probably would have put it to the back of her head, never told anyone the truth and would have sought out love and have a family of her own etc. The fact that she genuinely lived her whole life feeling guilt and that she was undeserving of love and forgiveness, whilst completely tarnishing her own reputation at the end of her life shows that she is very human and I have enormous compassion and sympathy for her.

[@CS-er3ib]

I revisit the movie often. It's beautifully depressing.

[@pamelawright9670]

How would film makers cope without those cottages at Birling Gap in East Sussex? They have featured in so many films!

[@nottycm5010]

Same with Shere in Surrey.

[@nananderson7259]

Every once and a while I come back to this particular video to marvel at the shocking lack of media literacy on display in modern society.

[@FayeVert]

😂 any clip from this movie is like that!

[@conorjames7307]

She is tryinf to rationale her guilt, but it feels like she is seeking forgiveness from herself rather than to "give them kindness".

[@thesprawl2361]

This scene just cracked me open in the cinema every time. I watched it, then got pulled along to watch it again, and each time I was just hucking and gulping back tears. You know what's going to happen, you've been primed for it, but it doesn't matter; it still hurts.

[@mmichelle4082]

a girl who got jealous cause the person she liked (who was way older then her) liked her sister instead. So out of jealously she ruined his life, despite seeing the mans actual face, she blamed her crush for a horrible crime. Didn't even try to own up to it later to set things right, until its too late since the victim married her abuser, meaning she wouldn't say anything against him now. THEN she all the sudden "remembers" Waiting until everyone around her or involved died then finally shared her secret with the world so she would forever be connected to her crush some way even if it's sick/twisted. What makes it even more sick is she thinks she did something by "giving" them a happy ending in her book. I hate her.

[@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire]

A child who made all the wrong decisions, and a woman who lacked the courage to set it right

[@bigsistahtips]

To me it makes sense the book was written by a man. Most men think women envy other women and do stupid shit because of it. Yeah, women make mistakes, but not because we are envious or jealous, but because we're human.

[@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire]

@@bigsistahtips you say that but envy and jealousy are very human emotions

[@bigsistahtips]

@@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire who said they weren't. I'm saying most men only attribute these sentiments to women and also use them as a source of any wrongdoing.

[@misspriss2482]

@@bigsistahtips True, but just about every wrong done to me by a woman was out of envy and this has been at different stages in my life. I've known several immature bitches. Perhaps that is what a lot of male authors are drawing from. Most men don't see women as competition hence they tend to be assholes for different reasons.

[@MsThebeagle]

I’ve watched Atonement once - having just watched the ending again…it’s devastating 😭

[@BP-kx2ig]

One of the greatest books I have read. The ending will haunt me forever.

[@travis2333]

Ugh, when it cuts to them on the beach 😭

[@RosebudSims]

Why am i watching this on the train and crying 😭 i always watch this movie when i need a good cry. So heartbreaking

[@WomanNextDoor]

One of my favorite books. The ending was a heartbreaking conclusion to a superbly written story. Time to read it again methinks.

[@lilyscior-lewis7746]

HOW does this make me cry without having watched the film or seen the book???

[@Chicago2329]

This move traumatized me for years. I still think about it occasionally

[@humbletrini7778]

What happy ending? She made it up, I've never hated a fictional character so much. After reading the part that they never met again as a child I cried for days.

[@watervillegangmember]

My bf at the time and I saw this movie in a theatre. When this stupid ending was revealed we both actually said "wtf" out loud. It is a terrible ending. She destroys two people's lives. Had plenty of chances to set the record straight as she got older but never did. I hate this character and ending.

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

She was just a child. Get a grip.

[@takeonedaily]

@@DeepScreenAnalysis This is what happens when women aren't held accountable. This is a red pill film.

[@aleksandra2003]

​@@DeepScreenAnalysis She was a bad child.

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

@@aleksandra2003 she was a fantasist child, who had trouble separating reality and fiction. She was a danger to others and to herself because of her own imagination.

[@davidmcconnell5658]

Shakespeare famously wrote in Sonnet 18: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." The point being that immortality is captured in words: the ending of this film and brilliant novel is like this because goes back to a classical notion which it seems a lot have missed. The idea of an ending like this to give these two lovers what they did not have in life, is in fact, the greatest gift possible: "a final act of Kindness." That sums up her thinking: it is an act of love which is seeking "Atonement" for the past, by writing the Truth of Love between them. It is truly a powerful and beautiful ending to a film which has such deep tragedy. It is a realization that our lives should always be about Love in the deepest sense even when the past haunts us. I hope this helps everyone understand this just a little bit better. Pax et Bonum.

[@debra6426]

❤

[@Bootmahoy88]

The ending made sense to me in a sobering way. You could say I'd come into the light of a stark truth. Whenever a grand lie that was used to carry the day and night is dashed to pieces I feel awakened. That they never really met was very refreshing to me. The works of art, like this, that dare to rip the very core of its alleged heart and expose itself, inspire me. They inspire me to ask myself, how many grand lies have you lived by, Dan? How many fabrications have you held to your heart for so long you began to believe them and live by them? It's sobering when I've stopped my drudge of stomping through the days for just a moment to really ask myself that question.

[@user-pb8yw8cw3s]

She devastated them in reality and decided to be kind with them in her book...this is how some people would think to get away from their crime.

[@ghaithfreihat9507]

I will return Find you Love you Marry you And live without shame 💔

[@bobl4419]

I couldn't agree more with Morgan White..... so well said. It takes great intelligence to get a movie like this and to actually get it They could not have possibly cast a better person in the role than Vanessa Redgrave to play Briny at the end. Bob L

[@shashibains307]

The absolute saddest ending of a movie. Gut wrenching.

[@rithvikmuthyalapati9754]

Moral of the story: Never tell lies

[@Victrola66]

I remember crying out in the cinema theater the moment she said they didn't get to be together before dying.

[@Rnankn]

The human capacity for delusion is a salvation and a curse, but far more a curse.

[@indigocheetah4172]

Well said.

[@ISEEKSPACE]

Even then she wasn't truly sorry. She understood that if she didn't give the readers a happier ending, then it would fail. She was completely malicious and still delusional at thinking she was being kind. She even released it to coincide with her birthday. She was completely narcissistic.

[@ck4777]

When she said “I gave them their happiness” my blood was boiling. It’s like the title of the story “atonement” is lie. If she thinks creating a delusional fantasy is atoning for destroying the lives of two people in love then she is insane.

[@miraeja]

i think the novel is more nuanced than this tho the movie could def make her seem like this

[@ck4777]

@@miraeja I haven’t read the novel admittedly so I’m only basing my thoughts off the movie

[@miraeja]

@@ck4777 oh was responding to the original commenter. My bad haha but highly recommend book as well!!

[@meghanmisaliar]

I think you misinterpreted what she meant.

[@cuyhater]

The tube station in the film is, of course, good old Aldwych, which is the station that appears in pretty much any movie requiring a "vintage" Underground setting (including another Keira Knightley film, "The Edge of Love"). The ending to "Atonement" was heartbreaking in the movie; in the novel, it was absolutely decimating.

[@DH-ex4nv]

I think childhood ends when you do something that you can't take back.

[@jennifer5512]

What an actress!

[@TrueWalker88]

This movie still breaks my heart after 17 years. The only solace I get is that they both died at the same time, and imagining that they found each other in the spirit world.

[@Sydney-wh8gq]

Her acting is impeccable 💯

[@billg3356]

I wasn't prepared for this movie the first time I saw it.

[@asmrcarousel]

This ending killed me. But I feel such compassion for Brionny. She is obviously utterly miserable because of that stupid awful lie as a child, and she had to bear a terrible burden of guilt for the events that came of it. I don’t know how anyone can feel anything but compassion for her.

[@Elizabeth-dw6lc]

Yet, she didn't even come close to the misery they endured. Her lie was unforgivable.

[@asmrcarousel]

​@@Elizabeth-dw6lc Living with deep regret and self-loathing is extremely burdening, and Briony had a lifetime to dwell in it. It looked like she was so filled with resentment towards herself that she couldn't move on from it. Moreover she was a child when she told that fateful lie, a smart one but a child nonetheless. She could not possibly envision the far-reaching consequences of her actions or consider the possibility of it becoming irreversible. Children tend to live in the present, time is abstract to them, they don't even ponder death. As I recall from the movie, Briony didn't even fully understand what she witnessed in the library, or the playfulness of Robbie's note that he had scrapped... She was quite literal in interpreting it all because she was just a child with a limited understanding of things. In my opinion she definitely deserved forgiveness, there are mitigating factors to her story. I also think those who show genuine contrition should be forgiven, although I wouldn't extend forgiveness to those who don't. I think there's no doubt that Briony is eaten up by remorse. Notice how even in her fictional account of their meeting, in her book, she couldn't have them forgive her... That's because she could not forgive herself. So she couldn't bear to have them forgive her, not even in her fiction. The way I see it she wrote the book with a happy ending already knowing she would add that epilogue with the sad true ending. I imagine that ommitting the truth seemed as good as lying, and lying had become repugnant to her. I really think Briony is a tragic character, like her sister and Robbie.

[@magorzatawarcho4671]

@@asmrcarousel her guilt does not exuse her sin

[@Gizisunshine]

I feel no sympathy for her. She gave them nothing, that ending was to make herself feel like she did something, like she told the truth. That ending was for herself not for anyone else. Once again in her imaginative mind she created something that isn’t real just to suit her purposes. Great acting and complex character of course, and I’ve always chosen to think that understanding and forgiving her wasn’t made a mandatory rule for the audience to follow.

[@Elizabeth-dw6lc]

💯!

[@telecine]

Esse filme é tudo pra mim! ❤

[@gypsy1rose417]

What struck me after watching this scene is what was left out from the novel: In the novel, Briony says that she purposely made it so that Robbie and Cecilia did not forgive her in her imagined scenario because she did not feel worthy of their forgiveness. I felt that was very powerful and wondered why they left it out of the movie.

[@mione12gft71]

They didn’t leave that out. You see in the scene see goes to make amends that both Cee and Robbie don’t forgive her. Cee even said she wouldn’t pretty bluntly.

[@emmaclean5144]

This movie had me sobbing

[@theogusat7968]

From Romania here. We studied this novel as sophomores for the postmodern courses, the narrator as not being reliable. A child not being familiar with the art of erotica, turned from "I heard" to "I saw". A child's testimony can be very dangerous, watch "The Hunt" with Mads Mikkelsen.

[@ooitung95]

Both this and The Hunt tear me down, but i cant stop myself from revisiting them.

[@dgm13]

I was broken. I dont think I could ever re-watch it.

[@cmonkey63]

I remember this ending scene well, and watching it again I wish that I had written it myself as I reach my own autumn years. Lives lived, or not, imagined or not. Such is life.

[@indigocheetah4172]

Précis.

[@Hachan2002]

This hurts me in a way I can’t even explain

[@spaniard_flower2539]

A love story more tragic than Romeo and Juliet. The last scene if the two of them walking by the shore is hauntingly beautiful....

[@angemaidment5640]

I hate how she said she was never able to put things right with her sister. She had a lifetime to do so - if she had really wanted to.

[@sarafina1263]

Not really? If Cecelia died then she would have only had a few years. Not sure if really would have been able to anyways.

[@HumanCredential]

“I gave them their happy ending”. No, Briony, no you didn’t. You helped ensure they would never get one. This line alone shows that no matter how much time spent with her guilt, trying to atone for what she did, she never truly changed who she was from the inside. She’s still a narcissist. She makes this about her. Throughout the entire film, every action she takes, whether it is in service of trying to help Cee and Robbie, or wounded soldiers, or her abused cousin, it’s still completely centered around Briony herself. Fitting that she became an author. People are complex, and she’s certainly not evil. However, she is deeply self centered, and she’s stayed that way at her core. That trait: selfishness, is one that I cannot stand. But the complexity of that was written beautifully by McEwan and portrayed brilliantly by Saoirse, Ramola, and Vanessa. My favourite single story.

[@misspriss2482]

She gave them the only happy ending she could - in fiction. She was a child when she told that lie and some lies can't be undone.

[@Gizisunshine]

I absolutely agree.

[@hyusuf4280]

What a load of sanctimonious bs. Gtfoh.

[@yoHUSEIN]

Absolutely, her attempt at atonement was just a continuation of her silly childhood notions

[@sayayangtahu6519]

It's remind me of bojack horseman. No matter how much he felt guilty of hurting people his desire to be self centered person never took away any chance to actually make his behavior right. That just doesn't make any sense.

[@danielallenbutler1782]

I'm so glad this is a work of fiction. Such a horrible, selfish woman, to imagine that, having ruined two lives, she can "atone" for her malicious actions by creating a make-believe "happy ending" for those two people that they could never actually know and experience. She can't make up for suffering she caused them, she can only try to assuage her guilty conscience by creating a fantasy. Despicable.

[@daintydalmatian]

She was a kid

[@cortney3123]

I remember being utterly devastated by this movie when I saw it in the theater in 2007, but I was single then. I recently watched it with my partner, who had never seen it, and being in love the way I am now, it landed in a completely different way. A different kind of devastation - I couldn't shake it off for days.

[@aziragoramo]

Great acting

[@rworld5182]

I just finished watching this movie, and oh my God my heart…. I literally screamed when Briory said the truth about Robbie and Cecelia :(((((( so devastating

[@mindakahn9964]

This is a beautifully written and executed film. But there’s no happy ending. Saorise Ronan is showing the revelation of performance.

[@MellySmith-ip7yu]

Vanessa Redgrave, one of Britain's greatest actresses.

[@ottopotomas]

oh wow - just noticed this. I've now been living in Balham for 5 years !

[@avrilpeters]

Knowing that Robbie and Cecelia died not knowing if the other was still alive crushed me I was distraught finding this out, and she can give them a " happy ending" as she calls it in her book but she can never atone for what she did to them and I don't feel one ounce of sympathy for her

[@wendywheeler9344]

It's NOT a happy ending! It's a fantasy that the guilty person makes to help her cope with the evil she did.

[@valoriebeeckman7092]

My sister who loves happy endings almost ended me after she finished this book 😂

[@alexnorth3393]

Lovely scenery. I've been there many times.

[@12classics39]

Most believe the beach scene is just Briony’s imagination, but I think it’s real. Either they’re alive and faked their deaths to avoid her family and Briony never knew, or their ghosts are haunting the seaside home that should’ve been theirs, or they are in the afterlife, enjoying their own manifestation of that home. Regardless, wherever they are now, Briony can never hurt them again, and they are together forever.

[@thehopefuledwardian]

I find it very fitting that Vanessa Redgrave also played a character in a tv adaptation of ‘The Go-Between’, which was apparently an inspiration for ‘Atonement’.

[@hisfavworstnightmare]

that ending just hits so hard, in the book and the film. this story still has me crushed 😭

[@lorenzooliveri5363]

One of my fav book ever and the movies is incredibly amazing.

[@jdd0815]

I remember seeing this in a full theatre opening night with my best friend. When Britney reveals the truth and we see the truth, I let out the loudest No! and immediately sobbed. It’s F Briony Tallis forever.

[@frankinsaneandmyrrh1202]

this ending is brilliant because it continues to spark debate. some say she is truly remorseful, she was an innocent child at the time and not to be blamed, and did what she could to atone for what she did. others say she should have still known better or at least when she was older she should have told the truth, and turning everything into another novel is still self-indulgent. such an intriguing story.

[@jonwolf2247]

This reminds me of Roger Scrutons thoughts on Beauty. The beauty of the moon only exists if someone takes the time to notice it. Without an observer, a witness, it's just rock in space. We create the beauty by noticing. This ending exists because someone chose to create/ notice it. "Real" does not come into it. Its a poetic way of trying to make sense of ones role in a tragedy and as an observer creating beauty out of sadness.

[@sirleo5103]

"I gave them their happiness" sounds kind of arrogant. She didn't give them anything. It may have sounded better if she said something like "I wanted them to have their happiness".

[@zyxw2000]

She's easing her own conscience.