Atonement Opens at AMC Sunset Place October 9 — Boyd Holbrook, Kenneth Branagh, and One of the Year’s Best Performances

There are films that arrive with critical consensus already locked in, and then there are films where the consensus feels earned rather than manufactured. Atonement, the Iraq War drama from Academy Award®-nominated director Reed Van Dyk, is the latter. It opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 2 and expands to Miami on October 9 — at AMC Sunset Place in Coconut Grove.

The film is based on a true story. During the early days of the Iraq War, the Khachaturian family — three generations displaced by U.S. military action — attempts to cross Baghdad to return home. They are caught in a firefight between U.S. Marines and insurgents. A Marine’s split-second decision devastates the family. Years later, haunted by what happened and aided by a New Yorker journalist, that Marine seeks to reconcile with the family’s matriarch.

It is a film about guilt, forgiveness, and what it costs to look someone in the eye after you have destroyed part of their world. The premise is not subtle. The execution is.

The Performances

Boyd Holbrook carries the Marine’s arc with the kind of physical restraint that makes the internal damage visible without announcing it. Kenneth Branagh appears in a supporting role that uses his authority without leaning on it. But the film belongs to Hiam Abbass, the Palestinian-Israeli actress whose work here has generated the most sustained critical attention. David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter called it “a master class” and “acting of the highest caliber.” Matt Neglia at Next Best Picture placed it among the best performances of her career. These are not hyperbolic claims. Abbass has been doing this for thirty years — Paradise Now, The Visitor, Blade Runner 2049 — and this may be the role that finally gets her the awards attention she has long deserved.

The Critical Response

Owen Gleiberman at Variety called it “bracingly real” and wrote that “you can feel the movie burning away the fog of war.” Sophie Monks Kaufman at IndieWire described it as “intimate and psychologically astute” and noted that it “draws a precise focus from what cinema is built for: putting us in a character’s skin.” The film screened at Cannes’ Quinzaine des Cinéastes and at TIFF. It arrives in Miami with that weight behind it.

Where to See It

Atonement opens at AMC Sunset Place 24 in Coconut Grove on Thursday, October 9. If you are the kind of person who tracks what is worth seeing before the awards conversation fully takes over, this is the one to catch now, while it is still a discovery rather than an obligation.

AMC Sunset Place 24 | 5701 Sunset Dr., South Miami | Opens October 9, 2026 | Directed by Reed Van Dyk | Starring Boyd Holbrook, Kenneth Branagh, Hiam Abbass | Distributed by Kino Lorber