ATONEMENT
(director/writer: Reed Van Dyk; cinematographer: Jon Peter; editor: Chelsi Johnstone; music: Zak Engel; cast:
Boyd Holbrook (Lou D’Alessandro), Kenneth Branagh (Michael Reid), Hiam Abbass (Mariam Khachaturian), Gheed (Nora), Majd Eid (Assad), Gratiela Brancusi (Anna Ramirez), Tahseen Dahis (Nicky), Jake Weary (Viccio), Amanda Warren (Olivia), Khris Davis (Leray); Runtime: 118; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Trevor White, Tim White, David M. Wulf, Reed Van Dyk, Steven Demmler; Redline Entertainment; 2026)
“War survivor film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Reed Van Dyk (“DeKalb Elementary”) directs this war survivor film. Kenneth Branagh plays Michael Reid a fictionalized version of combat journalist Dexter Filkins, whose 2012 New Yorker article told the story of a U.S. Marine who reunited with an Iraqi family devastated by his actions.
In 2003 in Baghdad, during the American invasion, Mariam (Hiam Abbass) is in a car with her Khachaturian family and is caught at an intersection during gunfire, as she’s trying to return to her family home. A U.S. Marine squad has taken up a position on the street to engage the enemy. Second lieutenant Lou D’Alessandro (Boyd Holbrook) takes a group of soldiers up on a roof to battle the hostile Iraqis. Her husband is one of three of the men in the car, all killed by the Americans when they get out of the car to surrender.
The story picks up ten years later in Glendale, California, where Mariam has resettled with her remaining family and Lou is also there suffering from combat guilt and PTSD over what happened on that unfortunate day. It leads to an arranged meeting by Filkins with the remorseful soldier and the woman whose life was ruined forever. The emotional meeting says it all about the bad war based on a lie over Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.
Though sometimes heavy-handed, it gets resolved in a gripping emotional tone.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 6/10/2026 GRADE: B-
dennisschwartzreviews.com
REVIEWED ON 6/10/2026 GRADE: B-
dennisschwartzreviews.com