Oscar-nominated Reed Van Dyk’s debut feature, Atonement, follows troubled Marine Lou D’Allesandro (Boyd Holbrook) years after his company opened fire on an Iraqi family, killing all the men, during a firefight in 2003. Lou’s guilt becomes overwhelming, seeping into every corner of his life. He can’t get out of his own way. This guilt leads him to try to meet the family, the Kachaturians, in person so they can reach some sort of resolution and move on with their lives. 

The movie starts strong, going back and forth between the soldiers’ POV and the family’s, both sides thrown into the line of fire, confused and with little direction. The film’s sound and production design really shine, with deafening bullets flying around. The setup is really well done, and Van Dyk maps the space smartly. Despite the chaos, the audience knows exactly where everyone is and just how close both parties are to converging, and the tension builds exponentially until they meet. 

Atonement’s hot start cools quickly when we jump to 2013. Lou works a couple of blue-collar jobs and is in an on-again, off-again relationship, struggling to make ends meet and running on empty mentally. It’s a tale as old as time for those coming out of military service. Little to no support after making sacrifices that will leave them scarred for the rest of their lives. This leaves Lou desperate, searching for answers in things that don’t help him. His guilt haunts him day in and day out, leaving him paralyzed in life. It doesn’t take long for us to realize the state he’s in, yet the film insists on sitting in this phase for way too long. 

I wouldn’t call it meandering per se, but the film takes its time getting to its point, and the detours are not really worth the sightseeing along the way. The entire film hinges on journalist Michael Reid (Kenneth Branagh) deciding whether he wants to help Lou connect with the Kachaturians, whom he has kept in touch with since covering the incident on the ground in 2003. We spend a good twenty minutes or so following Reid as he tries to decide, while also adding an old-flame subplot that goes nowhere once introduced. 

This attempt to characterize a middleman figure like Reid makes sense once you realize the story is based on real-life events documented by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dexter Filkins, who is credited as a co-writer on the script. It’s as if the film owes a debt to him by making his stand-in’s internal life just as important as Lou’s and the Kachaturians’. It sinks any momentum the film had.

Despite the film’s many flaws, Holbrook gives a standout performance, showing he can do drama without being boisterous or dripping with charm. He handles a wide array of emotions that turn on a dime a few times and thoroughly impressed me throughout. The whole movie is worth it for his work alongside the matriarch of the Kachaturian family, Mariam (Hiam Abass). Their quiet on-screen sparring evokes strong emotions and is by far the best part of the film, and Abass’s subtlety and restraint are profoundly moving. 

It’s clear to see why Van Dyk wanted to make this from-the-headlines movie. On paper, it’s a slam dunk, with the opportunity to tackle engrossing dramatic material while staging a drawn-out gunfight sequence all in the same film. Several of these aspects work, but the rest of the film sits too long in unsatisfying territory to work overall. 

Atonement is bookended by 40 minutes of robust filmmaking feats in both craft and acting, but everything in between leaves much to be desired. Holbrook captivates with his performance, bringing nuance and empathy to a character that I would normally write off. There’s plenty here to be excited about Van Dyk’s future as a filmmaker, and a more focused, tight feature would be a great next step in his career. 

Review Courtesy of Cameron K. Ritter

Feature image credit to TIFF