(MA) Keira Knightley, Romola Garia, James McAvoy

This powerful adaptation of the acclaimed 2001 novel by Ian McEwan will be unlikely to disappoint his fans.

With echoes of another memorable book-turned-film, The English Patient, it traces a series of lives from the heady days of the 1930s through to the utter horror of World War II. It features some of the most moving scenes of war I have seen in a long time, but this is a story of changes set in motion, and fates sealed, before the war began.

As the members of the wealthy Tallis family gather at their sprawling Sussex country home on a sweltering day in 1935, Briony (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious and highly imaginative 13 year old, witnesses what she perceives as a series of shocking transgressions by the housekeeper’s son Robbie (James McAvoy).

Her older sister Cecelia (Keira Knightley) is home from university for the summer break, spending long, languid days in contemplation and dealing with confusing new feelings for Robbie.

Briony’s accusation against Robbie, which sees him thrown in jail, is the moment on which the whole film turns. It has repercussions that no-one could have imagined.

When the action shifts to World War II, we see Robbie operating as a private soldier in France shortly before the evacuation of British troops at Dunkirk.

Briony, played as an 18 year old by Romola Garai, is working as a nurse in London and starting to come to terms with the enormity of what she has done. Through a work of fiction which she types feverishly after lights-out in the nurses’ quarters, and the messy, heart-wrenching work of tending horrifically wounded soldiers, she seems to be looking for some kind of absolution.

I found it hard to stop thinking about this film. Some of the biggest themes in the human experience are here — forgiveness, love, sin, death, loyalty — but it never gets melodramatic.

The performances are restrained and there are long moments without dialogue, particularly in the early scenes where the clickety-clack of a typewriter (a recurring motif throughout the film), the rush of running water or the insistent thud of a ball against a wall create a sense of the oppressive heat, the emotions simmering below the surface, and the danger to come.

Though there’s only one major instance of explicit language, it definitely rules out younger viewers.

Emma Halgren