Keira's revealing new role

by BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Last updated at 08:41 27 July 2007


There's one constituency of Keira Knightley's fans who won't be able to see her give her best screen performance to date, in the film of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.

For the children who dragged their parents to the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, Atonement will be off limits because of its adult subject matter and gripping, but bloody, scenes of injured WWII soldiers.

In the film, sublimely directed by Joe Wright working from Christopher Hampton's screenplay, Keira plays university graduate Cecilia who finds herself passionately in love with James McAvoy's Robbie, the handsome would-be doctor.

One terrific scene shows McAvoy typing Cecilia a note revealing, in sexually explicit terms, his truest feelings for her, which he then, mistakenly, has delivered to her.

Later she and McAvoy make love, keeping their clothes on, but all the zips and buttons are unfastened, in one of the most erotic moments that's likely to be seen on screen this year.

As the actress commented to me when I spoke to her on the set: "She's a grown-up and she does grown-up things. I was 17 when I started playing Elizabeth in the Pirate films and they were fun, but very much meant for families.

"Now I've grown up and so have the roles."

I caught Atonement a second time this week and I liked it even more than I did the first.

It's the best film of the year. (If I see a better one then, of course, you'll be the first to know.)

The performances - all of them - are outstanding. Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave play the three ages of Briony Tallis, Cecilia's younger sister who, by telling an untruth, sets the two lovers (Keira and McAvoy) off on a journey of love and tragedy.

Atonement opens the Venice Film Festival at the end of August and then goes on release here in September, making it more than eligible for the Golden Globe, Bafta and Oscar awards.

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