Christopher Hampton's screenplay of Ian McEwan's novel, carrying over the structure that makes the book what it is: a child misreads what she sees, testifies to it, and ruins two lives. The ending is the test any adaptation of this novel has to pass, because its last movement reveals that part of what has been read was written by Briony as atonement and did not happen. The film keeps it, delivered as an interview with the elderly Briony, so the audience is left holding the same retraction.