Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. When Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), thirteen-years-old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) at the fountain in front of the family estate, she misinterprets what is happening, thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is raped, she tells the Police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed. —garykmcd In 1939, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) is a Private in the British Army, he and his battalion who are heading to France to fight in the war. A stint in the army is not where his life was headed, which took a radical turn four years earlier at the Tallis estate where he grew up as his mother worked as the Tallis' live-in housekeeper. As such, he grew up with the three Tallis children: son Leon (Patrick Kennedy), and daughters Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Briony (Saoirse Ronan). Robbie and Cecilia were just getting to the stage of their lives of being able to confess their true love for each other. But then thirteen-year-old aspiring writer Briony also had a crush on the older Robbie. Based on two incidents she saw between Cecilia and Robbie (one only from afar), on reading a private letter Robbie wrote to Cecilia, and on her own feelings for Robbie, Briony told some truths and half-truths about Robbie which resulted in this turn in his life. Robbie is able to reconnect with Cecilia before he is shipped off to France, and lives only to be able to head back to London to be with Cecilia and make up for the missing four years they could not spend together due to Briony's actions. A year later, Briony (Romola Garai), now eighteen, also arrives in London to start working as a nurse to support the war effort. By this time, she is aware of the damage her thirteen-year-old self caused, and wants to atone for that error to Cecilia, from whom she has been estranged, and Robbie, who she has not seen since. She will make this atonement even if neither Robbie or Cecilia will ever speak to her, or if it takes the rest of her life. —Huggo The day that thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) came across her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and her lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) making love in the library was a day that would have repercussions for all three of them. Briony misunderstands what has taken place between them and her reaction later tears the two lovers apart perhaps forever as war breaks out in Britain. —mel47 In 1935 England, young Briony Tallis falsely accuses Robbie Turner of a crime, irreparably altering his life and that of her sister Cecilia. The narrative spans pre-war, wartime, and post-war periods, chronicling love, loss, and the burden of guilt. Briony dedicates her life to seeking atonement through writing, confronting the consequences of her youthful mistake. The film explores class, innocence, and the destructive potential of imagination, examining how a single act can change lives irrevocably. —chera_khalid
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