10 Infamous Lines That Completely Ruined Decent Movies

The equivalent to 'it was all just a dream', the ending for this 2007 Period/War piece is so staggering awful it is hard to believe the film was nominated for a best picture Oscar. What makes the late 'twist' all the more dreadful is one of the most sanctimonious lines of dialogue delivered in cinematic history.

The story of the film follows Keira Knightley's upper class Cecilia, who falls in love with the groundskeeper's son Robbie, played brilliantly by James McAvoy. Due to a chain of events that are misinterpreted by Cecilia's younger sister Briony, Robbie finds himself arrested and wrongfully jailed on charges of rape. Cecilia and Robbie eventually serve in World War 2, before the final act shows the couple reunited, their romance rekindled.

That is until we are told by an elderly Briony that the two never did get back together, and that in fact these events were just figments of her imagination, concocted tales for a book she had just completed. While this twist was rather lame in itself, Briony's statement that "this is my atonement" proves phenomenally hard to swallow.

The movie concludes with blissful shots of Robbie and Cecilia living happy lives as romantic chords swell in the background, making it clear that the filmmakers believed her novel had truly atoned the character for destroying Robbie's life. To have the audience investing in scenes that didn't actually happen was one thing, but to use it as a misguided redemptive arc was too much.