Tremendous production value and an appalling cast – particularly the young Saoirse Ronan – buoy a sometimes stodgy drama based on the novel by Ian McEwan, A sense of dread pervades up to the accusation by the confused 13 year-old Briony Tallis, one which sends Gardner Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) off to prison, and eventually off to war where the movie picks up considerably. Director Joe Wright evokes photographs of WWI, and shows a great deal of visual panache – particularly in an impossibly long tracking shot featuring hundreds of extras. A tad overblown, but a fine examination of the nature of guilt, and the retribution that often never comes.