Atonement (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
21

I don’t know about that - when Briony went to the wedding, Lola was startled when she saw her, looked very sheepish and guilty, and rushed out of the church. Obviously feels guilty about something.

I think Lola knew who her “attacker” was. But I don’t think it was 100% consensual either - maybe 60%. When Mr. Chocolate Factory was flirting with her earlier she seemed interested - she wanted to seem grownup. Maybe she thought she’d go along with fooling around in the bushes and then had a change of heart and/or was freaked out by the experience. So when Briony appeared and asked who the attacker was, Lola was all “I don’t know - did you see who it was.” When Briony said it was Robbie, then Lola confirmed it.

22

I couldn’t remember exactly how the dialogue went in that scene, so I googled and found out that you can download the shooting script for Atonement from the Focus Features website here (From the mainpage click on “Atonement” then “Download the Script”). The section for the attack is:

23

I have Arnold’s interpretation.

After Briony walked in on the “assault” and started questioning Lola about what had just transpired, it seemed to me that Lola deliberately didn’t reveal anything more than what Briony had seen or assumed. Briony responded as if she’d been attacked, so Lola started acting that way. Briony didn’t see who her “attacker” was, so Lola confessed to not seeing him either. It didn’t seem like she started acting traumatized until after Briony revealed her assumptions.

Earlier when she showed the bruises on her arm and blamed them on the boys, it showed that she was dishonest and willing to lie in order to cover up her naughty girl behavior. It can’t be mere coincidence that she goes on to do the very same thing when she’s caught fooling around with the chocolate man.

On edit: Well, Briony did claim to see the “attacker”, but it’s clear that once she spoke Robbie’s name, Lola went with the flow because it was her way out of a embarrassing situation.

24

The more I consider this story, the more I hate Briony - and I’ve only read the book, not seen the movie. In making a character real enough to be hated, the author succeeded.

25

I don’t hate Briony at all. She had read something that squicked her out, then she saw something in the library that scared her, then she saw something outside – for a fraction of a second – that terrified her. Add an active imagination to that mix and you’ll get a misunderstanding.

I think she truly believed the Handsome Young Hero was the attacker.

Actually, I spent much of the movie convinced that he WAS the attacker and that this revelation would be The Big Twist.

I like the film’s ambiguity about exactly what happened and what Briony knew. I still can’t decide whether the Redhead was attacked or was engaging in consensual sex. If attacked, I’m not sure whether she knew who did it. Why did she end up marrying the Chocolate Magnate? Hell, did that even really happen? Maybe it was another piece of the happy ending Briony cooked up.

That said, I wasn’t thrilled by the movie. The structure of jumping back and forth in the timeline made it hard to get emotionally invested in the love story. Without that, it was basically an intellectual exercise.