In theaters

ATONEMENT, directed by Joe Wright, written by Christopher Hampton, 122 minutes, rated R.

The new Joe Wright movie, “Atonement,” has everything you could wish for in a period drama – beautiful cinematography, set design and costumes; exotic locales; and a story designed to rip out your heart and crush it when a rushed, heated romance between two young lovers is poisoned by the lies and deceit of another.

The trouble with the film, which Christopher Hampton based on Ian McEwan’s celebrated 2001 novel, is that you’re always aware that you’re watching a movie. There’s no sinking into “Atonement,” no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you. That’s a disappointment because the film’s engrossing sourcebook suggests that the movie also could have been as engrossing.

The film stars Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis, a privileged, brittle beauty who isn’t especially likable, which is a problem since the movie eventually asks us to feel something profound for her. Looking bored and bothered in 1935 England, Cecilia has issues with Robbie (James McAvoy), the handsome son of one of the Tallis’ longtime housekeepers (Brenda Blethyn, excellent). Robbie was put through Cambridge with Tallis money and now he is treated as something of a third-wheel member of the family.

The youngest member of the household is spooky Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a wide-eyed lass with a clipped blonde bob, a mean mouth and a tight-fisted gate who fancies herself as something of a writer.

She favors fiction, which is key, and she also has a crush on Robbie, which is critical to why she does all that she does when Robbie gives her a letter to deliver to Cecilia. Inside that envelope isn’t the love letter Robbie meant to send, but a graphic description of what Robbie would like to do to Cecilia’s genitalia. He wrote it in jest, but there it is in the envelope, which is delivered just as a series of events unspool that lead to Robbie’s arrest and a stint in the big house.

Five years later, when he’s released from prison after agreeing to serve in the war, the movie becomes about his quest to reconnect with Cecilia while Briony, now a nurse played by Romola Garai, has grown up and developed a conscience. With war’s devastation surrounding her and humbling her, she decides to atone for her sins, though in ways best left for the viewer. A final appearance by Vanessa Redgrave as the present-day Briony gives the movie a feeling it otherwise lacks.

“Atonement” isn’t a boring movie – there’s lots of lovely furniture to look at here, nevermind the appealing vision of its romantic leads – but it isn’t a very gripping movie, either, because Cecilia and Robbie aren’t allowed to create a fierce, believable bond onscreen. This is a film you watch from the sidelines, thinking how pretty Knightley looks in this gown, that bathing suit, and how the lighting in a key scene in which Cecilia and Robbie have sex against a wall of books is more interesting than the scene itself.

In the end, the film is an exercise in style over substance, even though it tries like mad to convince you that it has plenty of the latter. It doesn’t. This movie’s heart wants to beat, but the script fails to give it the hammering pulse it desires and deserves.

Grade: C+

On DVD and HD DVD

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, directed by Paul Greengrass, written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, 111 minutes, rated PG-13.

In “The Bourne Ultimatum,” Paul Greengrass follows his excellent, Academy Award-nominated “United 93” with one of last summer’s best, smartest action movies.

The film is a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy that has taken audiences around the globe as the amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) sought his true identity while efficiently taking down thugs and government agents along the way.

“Ultimatum” follows suit, but since this is the final film in the trilogy, more answers are at hand, with Damon again succeeding at being a terrific – and unlikely – action hero.

CIA agents Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and her boss, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), are after him, though fellow agent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles, the film’s weakest link), does help him come closer to piecing together the full truth behind his lost identity.

To bolster the sense of Bourne’s focus, the film arms him with as little dialogue as possible. It’s a decision that underscores Bourne’s inward existence and which also prevents Bourne from raising the sort of questions that might threaten an audience’s suspension of disbelief. One doesn’t, after all, want him surviving a 70-foot fall off the top of a building and then have him talk about it. Best just to feel the rush and move on.

Beyond Damon, the strength of the franchise always has been in how it uses the world as its backdrop to full effect. No amount of computer animation or stunt work achieved on a backlot can ever trump, in this case, the thrill of watching a tense car chase through the streets of Manhattan, or a foot chase along the rooftops of Tangier.

The realness of these scenes have a dual effect – they suggest moviemaking that isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty, and they also make the films as hard-nosed as the Robert Ludlum novels on which they’re based. Helping to that end are Oliver Wood’s raw cinematography, Christopher Rouse’s crazed yet coherent editing, and a pummeling score by John Powell that doesn’t stop until Bourne stops himself.

Grade: B+

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.