Shattered lives make for a breath-taking hit

James McAvoy told me he found himself a little tearyeyed when he was shooting some scenes for the movie version of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.

"When you look at it, these two lovers don't have very much time together - and that's sad," James told me when he was doing post-production on the film that will make him an international star.

James plays Robbie, one of the lovers. The other is Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, giving a totally grown-up performance.

Atonement is the story of how Briony - Cecilia's highly imaginative 13-yearold sister - tells a lie and how destructive that untruth proves to be. Poor Robbie's sent to jail, so all he has to remember, as he later recounts, is a highly erotic coupling with Cecilia in the library of her family home.

Then, as in McEwan's novel, Joe Wright's breathtaking film moves from the summer of 1935 to the hell of war, as the British Expeditionary Force evacuates to Dunkirk.

There's the most extraordinary long, sweeping shot where Seamus McGarvey's camera tracks the chaos of lost souls on the beach. Then, in a stunningly simple scene, there's a group of British soldiers singing the hymn Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind as the camera continues on its way. The shot picks up McAvoy's shellshocked and wounded Robbie and follows him into a beach-side cinema showing a 1938 Marcel Carné film, and the screen heroine's luscious lips remind Robbie of his sensual clinch with Cecilia and how she begs him in her letters to "come back, come back to me".

No wonder McAvoy felt so teary. It's a shattering, heartbreaking, brilliant scene. And there are many others in Atonement which, in the words of James Stewart, left me with moments of time that I'll never forget.

The two leads, McAvoy and Knightley, have never been better, and I was struck by how every role, no matter how small, works under director Wright's helmsmanship: Brenda Blethyn's housekeeper, Alfie Allen's houseboy, Benedict Cumberbatch's slick chocolate magnate, and Daniel Mays and Nonso Anozie as Robbie's wartime buddies.

Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave play Briony at different ages and they instantly, and seamlessly, have to register their own sense of her - which they do superbly. When I saw Keira the other day, she told how she was shoved (her word) on to the Pirates Of The Caribbean films when she was just 17.

"I hadn't worked on a scale like that and I was very nervous, so you have these performances that were more out of nerves than anything else: nervous that I'm never going to work again and nervous that I'm c**p and this is horrendous. Confidence was always an issue." Well, director Wright helped her chill out enough to give an Oscarnominated performance in Pride And Prejudice and he has done it again with Atonement.

Acouple of friends have cautioned me that I sometimes get over-excited if I love a movie or a play, and I'm aware of that. So, sue me for recognising great stuff! I sat in the screening room for ten minutes after the movie ended and watched all the credits until a security bloke chucked me out.

Atonement is the must-see film of the year, and the most fascinating thing (and the factor that cheers me the most) is that it has been made by the very best of our British movie talent - talent that we're going to see at the Baftas and the Oscars next year. (Although I should point out that the haunting and beautiful score is by Dario Marianelli and piano is played by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.)