Atonement (2007)

I was wandering through the library shelves when I picked up Ian McEwan's Atonement. I didn't know what it was about, but I remember it was adapted into a movie with Keira Knightly and Saoirse Ronan that I had meant to watch for quite some time, so I read it. And I loved it which is why I was no longer sure I wanted to see Joe Wright's Atonement.

The story opens in 1935 when a 13-year-old aspiring writer and playwright, Briony (Saoirse Ronan), witnesses an act she doesn't fully understand, the long-time family servant, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), making love with her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Later on, she becomes the witness of a crime she doesn't understand but she thinks she does and falsely accuses Robbie because of what she had seen earlier. This accusation of hers tears apart the two lovers, maybe forever as Robbie is sent to serve the army in WWII. Five years later, a grown-up Briony (Romola Garai), aware of the damage she has caused, tries to make amends for it.

One Day (2011)

Nine years ago I bought David Nicholls's One Day only to stop reading it after a hundred pages because I didn't like it. Years later, when I learnt that it had been adapted into a movie starring Anne Hathaway, I decided to watch the movie instead to know how the story ended. And I did not like it. Earlier this month I gave the book another chance and I liked it enough to consider giving the film another shot. Unfortunately, unlike the book, the second time was not a charm. 

The story follows the lives of Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess), starting with an almost one-night stand on their graduation night, on July 15, 1988. They decide to stay in touch but, over the course of eighteen years, they grow apart as they choose different paths and we are shown what they are up to on the same day, July 15, every year.