A brave (and right) BAFTA decision

Last night's best actress award to Marion Cotillard was a brave decision by BAFTA, and the right one. Her outstanding performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose was the best by an actress in a leading role last year. If Atonement won any awards, one should have gone to the brilliant 13-year old Saoirse Ronan for her supporting role rather than the less convincing Kera Knightley. It was good to see the German drama The Lives of Others winning best foreign film; but it was more richly deserving of the best film mantle than Atonement, which really did not live up to the hype (Ronan's performance aside).

Atonement - stylish but slight

We saw Atonement, the stylish adaptation of Ian McEwan's tale of lost love, wrongful accusation and the travails of War, last night. The cast are universally good, though Saoirse Ronan as the young and spiteful Briony steals the show from the much-hyped Keira Knightley and increasingly impressive James McAvoy. The film is beautifully shot and familiar figures like Gina McKee and Vanessa Redgrave offer splendid supporting performances. In particular, the chaos of Dunkirk as soldiers await evacuation is extraordinarily captured in a five-minute scene worthy of Hieronymus Bosch. But after it is all over - and the ending twist is moving - there is a niggling feeling that it may not quite add up to the sum of its parts. It is, though, well worth seeing.