There's a certain level of Unintentionally Unsympathetic to Robbie as while he is convicted of a horrific crime he didn't commit, the movie points out he missed the fact none of the family except Cecilia was willing to think him innocent on the flimsiest of pretenses. His attempt to better his station put him among a bunch of Upper-Class TwitJerkass types who quickly turned on him.
A much darker interpretation of Briony accusing Robbie rather than Marshall is that she knew Marshall was the rapist all along but was afraid that with his money and connections he might easily get away with his crimes - and then return the favor on the girl who named him and her family. So she may have been Believing Their Own Lies out of pragmatism - as at one point Lola suggests that Robbie might not be the rapist because he's so close to the family, only for Briony to insist it was him.
Briony's actions regarding the happy ending she gives to Robbie and Cecilia in her novel: is she genuinely making amends to people she wronged the only way she can and knows how, or is she selfishly, cravenly and dishonestly attempting to rewrite history and cover up her own actions to make herself feel better, and hiding behind atonement as a justification? What's more is that in the Distant Finale Briony claims she will be suffering from dementia. So if she writes a happy ending for Robbie and Cecilia, the dementia may make her think it's true...
In the book, the reader is treated to a very harsh portrait of the young Briony in the lead-up to Lola's rape. Considering this is meant to have been written by her older self, is it a reliable interpretation of events or is Briony's self-loathing and regret making her an Unreliable Narrator? To go even further, Briony doesn't actually know that Marshall was Lola's rapist — or even that Robbie was innocent, only that his and Cecilia's relationship was consensual. Rereading the book is a bit of a Mind Screw.
The book's vagueness of the offpage actions of Marshall and Lola also include some of this. The general picture one could get is the young Lola got in over her head and Marshall couldn't understand the word "no". But even if this is so, how exactly they got married is another major question. It is possible he purposely seduced his victim to marriage so she could not testify against her. It's also possible if with the understanding of the comparisons between Lola and her mother she may have blackmailed him after he made his fortune to expose him for the rape unless she got her way. Or it was a little bit of both making them both a Karma Houdini to Robbie and Cecilia's plights. Lola's first scene with Marshall follows moments where there's talk of her family struggling financially, suggesting she could have been motivated by an odd desire to pursue a millionaire.
A parallel between Briony and Cecilia; at one point Briony pretends to be drowning to get Robbie to jump in and save her, in the hopes of living out a romantic fantasy. Cecilia by contrast sacrifices propriety by stripping off, diving into the fountain and retrieving the broken vase piece to fix someone else's problem. Cecilia is the one who ends up dying by drowning, while Briony uses her fakery to atone for her own selfishness.
The dying soldier that Briony tends to, and pretends to be his sweetheart. If you take the Word of God that she did fall in love with him for those few minutes, it becomes a parallel to Robbie and Cecilia, whose final meeting is only getting a few minutes before they have to separate.
Robbie seems incredibly out of character when confronting the adult Briony about her actions - actually saying he'd love to throw her down the stairs. He also never seemed to show disdain for "common servants" or distance himself from his origins. This is more hinting to Briony making the whole scene up as a way to be punished for her actions.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Briony is hated more by readers and viewers because she starts off as a Spoiled Brat and Know-Nothing Know-It-All, and those qualities are what lead to her sending an innocent man to jail. She's more hated than the actual rapist Paul Marshall, because he's ultimately a side character. The fact that her Heel Realization comes too late to save anyone and she becomes a Karma Houdini who merely has to live with what she's done, while still living to an old age and having a successful career as a novelist doesn't help.
Briony through and through. The Jerkass part is more evident in the early part of the story, where she's a Spoiled Brat who ruins several lives through her actions. But she suffers a Heel Realization as she gets older, has to live through World War II (seeing patients die all around her as a volunteer nurse) and must face the deaths of her sister and childhood friend, knowing she's responsible. It's impossible not to feel just a little bit sorry for her.
Lola when you think about it, since she is introduced becoming aware of the financial situation her family is in and of course ends up as a rape victim (or at the very least the subject in grooming from a much older man) - not to mention she doesn't know who her attacker is and was subject to some Gaslighting from Briony. Jerkass however because she's something of a Spoiled Brat and allowed an innocent man to have his life ruined just to cover up her own dirty laundry.
Ron the Death Eater: Some readers and viewers go overboard with the hate towards Briony, painting her as the Villain Protagonist, and forgetting that the inciting incident was her wanting to help her cousin after she was raped. Briony didn't just name Robbie as the rapist out of spite; she had some reason to believe he could have been the culprit and, due to her childish naivety, couldn't understand things that a child shouldn't normally be exposed to anyway.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Lola's story is interesting enough for a novel in its own right. As a teenager, she's aware that her family is in trouble financially and possibly enters into an affair with an older man who's a millionaire. When she's assaulted, she complies with Briony's belief that Robbie was her attacker, letting him go to jail. She grows up to marry her rapist which could have been for a multitude of reasons that aren't confirmed - and the innocent man she let take the fall dies shortly after her wedding. It's unknown if she ever felt guilt for allowing Robbie to suffer that way, or whether she convinced herself he was the attacker. But she's entirely a side character and we never get any insight into her thoughts or motivations.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Briony's elder self, whom the audience is clearly supposed to feel sorry for due to her guilt and oncoming dementia. However, the whole mess she describes was almost entirely her fault, brought about by her envy, cruelty and sheer stupidity. Her attempt at giving Robbie and Cecelia a happy ending in her book comes off as a truly pathetic attempt to hide from her guilt, although even in fiction they don't forgive her.
The Woobie: Cecilia becomes one by the end. Her family likely wouldn't have objected to her marrying Robbie and if there had been some, the war would have probably put things in perspective. But once the false accusation hits Robbie, they have no chance of being together. Their final meeting is just getting to share a few minutes in London together, and Robbie later dies in Dunkirk. Cecilia later dies estranged from her family in the Blitz. The film shows her emotionless as the bombing starts happening - implying she's given up completely and will Face Death with Dignity.
Despite garnering nominations in other parts of the awards circuit, including the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy ultimately failed to earn Oscar nominations. Though both categories were especially crowded with talent during the 80th Academy Awards.
Despite seven nominations, second only the eight by No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, the film itself ultimately went home with only one Oscar for Best Original Score.
Awesome Music: Dario Marianelli earned a well-deserved Oscar for the moving score.
Best Known for the Fanservice: A good amount of the interviews for the movie were regarding the library tryst. Keira Knightley regards it as the best love scene she"s filmed.
Genius Bonus: After Briony has accused Robbie of raping Lola, she is shown standing in front of a stained-glass window of St. Matilda, the patroness of the falsely accused, and also the subject of a nursery rhyme that begins "Matilda told such awful lies/ She made one gasp and stretch their eyes..."
Harsher in Hindsight: Saoirse Ronan plays someone who sends an innocent man to jail over a rape he didn't commit. Her next role after this was The Lovely Bones, based on a book by Alice Sebold. The latter was a rape victim herself, and later discovered she had sent the wrong man to jail too.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The Dunkirk sequence becomes this after Joe Wright's 2017 film Darkest Hour (2017), which was about the events at Britain during the Dunkirk evacuation.
Narm: Some of the drama about the obscene letter leads to this in the movie. Especially when the word "Cunt" is flashed on the screen, leading to unintentional hilarity. According to screenwriter Christopher Hampton, the scene was meant to play out like a comedic farce, to make the turn for the tragic all the more shocking. This is a departure from the book where the horror of the situation is mostly played straight.
One of Benedict Cumberbatch's earlier film roles. He uses a high-pitched voice to add to the Upper-Class Twit feel, making him harder to recognize now.
Alfie Allen, here having just a couple of scenes as Danny Hardman, would gain greater exposure as Theon in Game of Thrones.
Signature Scene: The Dunkirk oner. While people had questioned the shooting of the scene as The Oner since the single shot adds little to the story (it wasn't supposed to be one, but became one due to time constraints), the result was found to be quite memorable when taken on its own as a cinematic painting of the chaos at Dunkirk. The scene itself ended up being somewhat more famous than the movie itself.
Trapped by Mountain Lions: Joe Wright decided to throw some Incest Subtext in there by having Cecilia kiss Leon on the lips and a couple of other hints - for no real reason other than the same author sometimes has incest in his works. This goes absolutely nowhere and doesn't inform anything about the characters, other than maybe Briony's unhealthy attitude towards sex (which is attributed more to childish naivety).
