Beautiful "Atonement" is the best of the fest so far

"Have you seen 'Atonement'?" is what everyone I've run into at Toronto International Film Festival has asked me since Sunday, and I answer that it's my favorite film here so far. Directed by Joe Wright and based on Ian McEwan's brilliant novel, it's a story about storytelling — about how a teller shapes a narrative, and about the power of being the one who tells.

Faithfully adapted by Christopher Hampton, it's a movie so gorgeous its scenes virtually shimmer; its first half, set at an idyllic English country house in the 1930s, is the stuff of dreams. Keira Knightley, effortlessly adopting the sort of rapid, posh upper-class accent in which all the words seem crushed between pages of a book, is a shallow young woman in love with the housekeeper's son (James McAvoy). An encounter with him, glimpsed by her little sister, changes their lives; as does, soon afterward, the advent of World War II.

Wright effectively maintains a taut pace that never feels rushed; watching his film is like reading the novel, as you both race through the pages and savor each word. This is a more accomplished movie than his previous one, the pretty but unsurprising "Pride & Prejudice," and literary audiences will surely embrace it upon its release late in the year.

"In Bloom," directed by Vadim Perelman ("House of Sand and Fog") is one of the many Toronto films without a release date — it's at TIFF seeking a distribution deal. While it's an affecting and thoughtful movie, it may well fade away like the flowers its cinematographer (the gifted Pawel Edelman) lovingly photographs throughout. Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood play the same character, Diana, as an adult and a teen, and the movie switches back and forth in time to depict a terrible event in Diana's past and its reverberations in her present. It's an impressively tricky, literate screenplay (by Emil Stern), but a late twist and abrupt ending leave its audience puzzled. Wood, with her curly, wicked smile, lights up the film; she's a remarkably vivid presence.

Quite possibly the sweetest film at the festival is "Lars and the Real Girl," which has a premise that sounds unbearably dreadful: A shy young man (Ryan Gosling) in a small town buys a life-size doll off the Internet, and falls in love with her. Director Craig Gillespie walks a delicate line: His film is charming without being cloying, funny without being obnoxious, and wins you over before you even realize it. As Bianca the doll becomes more and more of a character, you realize that you believe in her, too — like Lars. Loud applause followed this film, which seems to be one of the fest's sleeper hits.

Finally, I had coffee Monday morning with a friend who happened to be near the Four Seasons this weekend when Brad and Angelina left in a car. There was, she said, a huge crowd screaming, following the car into the street. "It was as if the Beatles were back," she said. Sounds like it's safer in the theaters.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com