Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Screenwriter Christopher Hampton on 'Atonement'

By Katey Rich

Speaking with Christopher Hampton, the screenwriter of Atonement, it's easy to see how quickly the film could have diverted severely from its source. Hampton admits that in the first drafts of the film, which he wrote for director Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal), he installed a framing device over the entire thing, and rearranged the way in which the narrative of the second half proceeds. When Joe Wright replaced Eyre on the project, though, "he set about kicking away the crutches," Hampton explains. "He said let's try and do it without a frame, so the audience at the end of the film is as surprised as the readers are at the end of the book. He said let's take away the voiceover, try and convey everything without that particular help. And let's try not to worry about the linearity of the story."

And that's what makes Atonement look like no other literary adaptation out there, in that it doesn't look like a literary adaptation at all. Though it's about a writer and her power as such, the voiceover and chapter breaks and everything else that usually mark a film's literary roots aren't part of Atonement at all. Not that it's not faithful to the novel; in fact, even in the parts when the film strays a bit from the book, the intention was there. Take the section of the film that takes place during the war in France, for example. "We had all those things [from the book] in the script, and there was a budget problem," Hampton says. "They insisted on making the film for $30 million, because they felt all along that it was a risky venture. That was the obvious section to start weeding out."

Instead the bulk of the story in Dunkirk was folded into a five-minute tracking shot across the beach that was home to the evacuation of the British army. The scene, which included a thousand extras, is a grand achievement in both filmmaking and acting, for the star James McAvoy, who is onscreen for much of the shot. "Filmmaking is a miracle of collaboration. That one day was a microcosm of that experience," McAvoy says. "There were 1800 people involved, and any one of them could have screwed it up at any one time. The fact that we got a take when nobody screwed it up is incredible. It's testament to [Wright's] audacity."

McAvoy said the challenge of the scene was to experience it as his character, not an actor who is part of a very precise, mechanical shot. "You start to get a bit overwhelmed. Then you realize that's you commenting on it, it's not you living it. It's not probably the way that every soldier felt, and it's not necessarily the way that this soldier should feel. So you have to detach yourself quite a bit, otherwise the actor just goes �This is so big, and scary and horrible' which of course it is, but that should be the reaction of the person watching it."

Of course, Atonement is above all a romance, not a war film, and both McAvoy and his co-star Keira Knightley have been deflecting questions about their onscreen chemistry with professional responses: "People always go on about chemistry like it's separate from acting, and I don't know that it is," McAvoy replies. Knightley concurs, adding, "I think as far as chemistry goes, you can have the best actors together, and in fact they can be in love with each other, and for some reason you won't have chemistry onscreen. I don't think anyone ever knows what makes that final bit of chemistry work."

Both are quick to add that their camaraderie during the shooting process, with each another and with Wright, likely boosted the onscreen chemistry. Knightley, who worked with Wright on 2006's Pride and Prejudice, said that they "speak the same language." "I think chemistry between actors is very rare onscreen, I think chemistry between actors and directors is even more rare. and we have really good creative chemistry for some reason."

McAvoy, Knightley and Hampton all had high praise for Saoirsie (pronounced SEAR-sha) Ronan, the 12-year-old Irish actress who plays Briony, the young writer who sets the entire plot in motion with one vicious lie. "She's brilliant in the film," McAvoy says. "It's not life experience that she's drawing upon, but she can imagine what it is to be someone else, not just her being natural in front of a camera. And I think that's what's remarkable about her."

Knightley adds that what Ronan brings to the performance is "not taught. So where does that talent come from? People keep on saying 'What advice are you giving her?' I would never dream of giving Saiorsie Ronan advice."