If you think that the first half of the movie is about an old-fashioned love story, it is a mistake to use Robbie and Cecila as the protagonists. It was 13-year-old Briony who told the love story. And what we really want to see is Briony's own story. The rhythm of this part is lightly jumping, a little hazy and psychedelic, which is the embodiment of the sensitive mind of a 13-year-old literary girl. Romance + detective is also the girl's favorite theme.
Four years later, the war broke out, Robbie went to France as a soldier from prison, and retreated to Dunkirk with great pains; Cecila left home to become a nurse and waited for Robbie to return to reunite. Briony also went to work as a nurse, washing herself like hard labor. This part is completely different from the style of the previous section, sad and euphemistic, not only because of the changes in the general environment, but also because of the storyteller, the 17-year-old Briony has also changed.
From here, we know that the original little Briony can not only write a drama, but also tell a terrible story, a story that completely changed the fate of Robbie and Cecila. More importantly, the story that inspired this story did not come entirely from the fanaticism and protection of the sister, but also from love and jealousy.
At this time, let us recall the scene at the end of the first part. Briony stared into the distance from the doorway with tears in his eyes. Robbie's mother screamed: liar, liar, liar... and the keystrokes crackled.
The young girl Briony represents this type of writer, young, smart, talented, but impulsive, sensitive, and too ego. He is surrounded by cheap praise and thinks he has insight into all the truth. When his inner desires cannot be resolved and given a moral fulcrum, he will make a fuss and even kill with a pen.
Nurse Briony represents another type of writer. The blood on the wound can be cleaned, but the soul cannot be washed away. It takes real courage to face such a dripping wound. Seventeen-year-old Briony wrote his first novel in the cold night. This is not a process of enjoyment, but a process of atonement.
However, the last paragraph of the film is truly shocking. It turns out that the end of the reunion is fake! Robbie and Cec have never been able to reunite happily. The elderly Briony said with difficulty, how can readers see hope or satisfaction in the true ending? I don't think this is weakness or escape, but the ultimate goodwill, I gave them happiness.
But can you trust her? Did the reader find happiness, or did Bariony find peace on his own? We know that in the second story, the apology scene is fictitious. What about the church wedding? Even going back to the first story, it's doubtful whether Bariony could see it clearly.
In the first story, Bariony thought he was defending justice and gave the audience a fictional story. In the second story, she gave us a bright end in the name of comforting the soul. Between truth, goodness, and beauty, one should always choose the truth, because if one is separated from the truth, there is no way to judge justice and happiness.
But writers, they are involuntarily tempted by justice and beauty, and they are inherently dishonest.
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