THERE'S already talk of Atonement gaining Oscar recognition next year.

Never mind potential nods for stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, or director Joe Wright. If they only gave out an Academy Award for best beach scene, then Redcar would be a certainty to collect.

Of course, few outside the North-East will know, and probably not even care, where the pivotal scene depicting Second World War Allied troops gathering at Dunkirk for the evacuation was filmed.

But the sequence will not only be one of this year's most talkedbout scenes, but one that will surely earn a place in cinematic history books.

Wright's five-minute tracking shot along the crowded beach has already been described by one previewer as "as effective a World War II beach scene as Saving Private Ryan's opening". "Wright stakes a claim for the scene of the year," they added.

Whirlpool The Dunkirk beach scene stands apart in a film that's a whirlpool of heady emotions and startling revelations, as a 13-yearold girl's telling of tales lead to the ruin of many lives.

Hardly a word is spoken as the camera tracks across a long stretch of beach, circles the bandstand and finally enters the Regent cinema. It's a masterpiece of detail as the camera skims past soldiers, civilians and animals waiting for the great escape from the advancing Germans.

Men dash by to go swimming, men sing, horses are shot to avoid them being taken by the enemy and, if you look carefully, you'll even see a man hanging off the big wheel in the background.

Redcar's beach and seafront have been dressed up - or rather dressed down - to show the chaos, confusion and destruction of an army in retreat.

As for the film itself, Wright demonstrates, as he did in his Austen adaptation Pride And Prejudice, that he is great at making what could be formal and stiff occasions into great cinema.

The camera is as restless as the characters in the house party assembled at an English country house, where 13-year-old Briony's imagination extends further than the play she's written to be performed for the guests.

She sees an erotically-charged encounter between her sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley with the cut-glass Forties vowels of Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter) and socially inferior Robbie (James McAvoy), whose education has been paid for by the master of the house.

If you've read the book, you'll know what happens. And if not, I don't intend to spoil the many dark surprises Christopher Hampton's adaptation springs along the way.

Knightley has, quite simply, never been better and disproves those, including me, who have never been fans of her acting.

McAvoy again shows himself one of the most interesting and accomplished young British actors working on the screen.

Towards the end, writer-director Anthony Minghella makes a brief appearance as a TV interviewer questioning the older Briony (Vanessa Redgrave).

It is appropriate casting that serves to remind us that Atonement is part of that classy Brit-lit movie genre, just like his Oscarwinning film of The English Patient.

* Atonement (15) opens nationwide from Fri