Michelle Sagara

I actually interviewed MacEwan when he had just finished writing Atonement -- and before he had started doing publicity for it -- and for him (take it with whatever grain of authorial intent you like), the novel was about the impossibility of atonement as a writer, because as a writer, even ostensibly chronicling the events, one holds all the cards, and has the lives in question under ones control from the beginning.

Given that, I think the movie does exactly that. You can't atone by writing. But.

To me, that's not unlike saying "water is wet". It seems so obvious, to me, but maybe I'm doing it wrong.