There have been many features exploring the lasting violence of the Iraq War. It’s a moment in history that’s loaded with troubling experiences and furious emotionality, giving filmmakers a chance to construct high drama with nuanced reactions to trauma in many forms. “Atonement” is another chapter in this story of woe, with writer/director Reed Van Dyk (making his helming debut) adapting a 2012 New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins, which detailed the experiences of a soldier trying to make sense of his time in combat, out to meet with the Iraqi family he forever changed during a day of duty in 2003. “Atonement” isn’t pursuing a plot-heavy picture, electing to concentrate on character reactions to horrible situations of guilt and personal loss. Van Dyk has the right tone for the offering, which focuses on turbulent feelings churning within those involved in the situation, following them as they process all that’s happened while hoping for some type of contact in the pursuit of forgiveness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
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