Past the Popcorn film roundup—A Compass That Points Nowhere, and a Successful Atonement
Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
The big new releases this week are New Line’s controversial The Golden Compass, and the British epic Atonement. Funny how you just can’t seem to escape Christian themes, one way or another, this time of year…
As fantasy, says Greg Wright, The Golden Compass mostly succeeds, though the narrative is rushed and the ending is overly truncated, pointing clearly to sequels. At a religio-philosophical level, he finds the film “juvenile,” and “as transparent and empty as a snow globe. Just wait for the flakes to settle, and those who buy what the movie is selling will likely conclude, as does one of the film’s characters, ‘I was so excited; now I’m just disappointed.'”
Atonement, though—a tragic romance that becomes an epic allegory of national guilt—impresses Greg as “a pretty stunning cinematic tour de force that clicks on almost all cylinders… This is some of the smartest, most beautiful, and controlled filmmaking of the year—especially for an adapted screenplay.” He likens the film to those of David Lean, who directed Doctor Zhivago, among many others.
Also this week, Jennie Spohr gives Jimmy Carter Man from Plains a mixed recommendation, and also finds Revolver pleasing enough for an R-rated pistol-flick bloodbath.
