MONA KERR ON FILM - "ATONEMENT" ///// "THERE WILL BE BLOOD"- VOL.8-1/16/08(FILM)

MOVIE REVIEW – AS AT 1/16/08:
BY MONA KERR:
“ATONEMENT” – UNIVERSAL PICTURES. KIERA KNIGHTLY, JAMES MCAVOY.
Well, one thing about this movie is that, if you have to go to the restroom, you will not miss a thing given the flashbacks – flashforwards etc. But it is a fine picture from the novel, always a challenge. The leads are charming – the newcomers are quite good. Some of the scenes are beautiful – but are they real or put in postproduction? At the end, one might think – was all of this worth it? ===== but, the real point may be the torment that one may have living a life wherein you truly hurt someone – and negatively affected their life - based upon a combination of a big lie plus intentional action and inaction. We all know people who have done that ------ and it is hard to imagine how they do atone, or sleep.
MONA'S RECOMMENDATION - WAIT FOR DVD.

"THERE WILL BE BLOOD" -------- DANIEL DAY-LEWIS ET AL.
Well, here is another slightly overrated film. BUT, SEE IT ------ IT IS QUITE GOOD. The oil man is a bad guy - really bad. (Not all oil men are bad guys.) The characters of many folks are examined. We love DD-L -------- do also see "The Gangs of New York" wherein he plays an equally lovable laugh-a-minute fellow. "Blood" may win the OSCAR ----- and perhaps it should. It is an epic - some history of our Nation's development as an industrial power based on oil - and it examines the way some advanced at the expense of others. MONA'S RECOMMENDATION - SEE IT IN A THEATRE.