Atonement (2007)

Dunkirk love epic Atonement is shaping up to be a very British triumph

By BAZ BAMIGBOYE



James McAvoy's sitting with me on the beach at Redcar talking about war, sex and Keira Knightley.

"Keira and I have sex and then I get carted away to jail. I tell her I love her and she tells me she loves me, then I go away to war and it's the power of her love that sustains me. That's it in a nutshell."

We were chatting about the screen version of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement as director Joe Wright was shooting the retreat to Dunkirk scenes on Redcar beach, expertly 'dressed' to resemble the French port town.

James was summing up how his character Robbie Turner, a decent chap, is undone by a schoolgirl's over-active imagination and wrongly accused of rape.

"You just know that little girl's going to do something properly bad - it's in the air. Robbie's an idealistic and optimistic chap at this stage, but his world view becomes tainted after jail.

"He's in his own private hell and the only way through it is the remembrance of ten minutes of ecstasy with Keira's character, Cecilia," James added.

James McAvoy in Atonement

Battling: James McAvoy in Atonement

As we talk, James is looking rather pale (it's the make-up) because Robbie, having stomped all the way to Dunkirk, has septicaemia. "Everything's amplified. He's going through an almost euphoric kind of state and he's seeing visions of Cecilia urging him to "come back, come back to me". It's the preservation of their love - as long as he can get back to her it'll be OK," James added.

The actor, like Keira giving the best performance of his career so far, finds such moments so gut-wrenching he becomes quite upset.

He also nods to the regiments of extras playing British soldiers being assembled on the beach by veteran second assistant director Michael Stevenson. "All that wasted youth caught up in the lies of war," James said quietly.

"It's unbearably moving at times," acknowledged screenwriter Christopher Hampton, who had come to Redcar for the day.

"You're in this country house on a lovely summer day and next thing you're marching to Dunkirk. The story is full of unexpected turns."

He admitted to being privately pleased that with a cast featuring the very British Keira, James, Vanessa Redgrave and Romola Garai, and young Irish star Saoirse Ronan, there's not a hidden American accent to be heard. "It couldn't be more British really," he added.

It's also the best of British movie-making.