Director: Joe Wright
Writers: Ian McEwan (novel), Christopher Hampton (screenplay)
Genre: Drama
Release Date: September 7, 2007 (UK), January 4, 2008 (USA)
Status: Available on DVD

Cast
James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, Vanessa Redgrave

Synopsis
Shot on location in the U.K., the film’s story spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony’s headstrong older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony – who has a crush on Robbie – is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested – and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.

Trivia
- Abbie Cornish was considered for the role of Briony – 18 years old but backed out due to scheduling conflicts with Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).
- Romola Garai shot her scenes in 4 days.
- Joe Wright had wanted Keira Knightley to play the role of Briony in her late teens, but Knightley immediately liked the character of Cecilia, and also wanted to get away from playing girls on the brink of womanhood and play a more mature character for once.
- Keira Knightley is 3 years younger than Romola Garai but played her older sister.