'Atonement'

I went into "Atonement" with little expectation. In light of it coming out the same year as "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," I saw it as the lightweight of the triumvirate.

Look at the Academy Award nominations and you just think that every year a limp movie gets Academy support and gets way more attention then they deserve.

I severely underestimated "Atonement." This is a fantastic film. Although I don't think the performances are as good as those other films, this film makes up for it in several ways.

"Atonement" has OK writing, but the film is built around dead space. The difficult pauses and things thought, but not said.

The score, which scored (ha!) one of those Academy nominations, is extremely creative with the rhythmic typewriter.

The 5-minute cinematography during the Dunkirk scene on the beach is the best segment of a movie of 2007.

Then there's the story. Just amazing.