Keira Knightley: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Cecilia Tallis - Atonement (2007)

Choosing between Knightley's collaborations with Joe Wright is no easy task: all the films they have made together are good, or at least interesting in some way, and it's clear how much of an artistic affinity they have together. But for all the merits of Pride & Predujice or Anna Karenina, Atonement is the biggest all-round success, both as a piece of film-making and as a showcase for her talents. Based on the celebrated novel by Ian McEwan, Atonement is a story of jealousy, guilt and unrequited love which begins a few years before the onset of World War II. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) comes across an erotically explicit letter, written to her older sister Cecilia by a servant called Robbie Taylor (James McAvoy). Racked with jealousy, Briony frames Robbie for the rape of her teenage cousin Lola (Juno Temple). Robbie is sent to prison and subsequently joins the army to fight in France. Atonement is a very fine piece of work which does justice to its source material and has a stellar cast; Benedict Cumberbatch got to play Sherlock after impressing Steven Moffat with his performance. But it simply wouldn't work without a believable central romance, and on this level Knightley delivers in spades. Cecilia could be played as an increasingly bitter, mopey child, but she brings an ethereal stillness to the role which lifts even the most incidental sequences. It's an elegant performance which avoids feeling too measured, and the fountain scene is something very special.