Atonement early yesterday evening in Hollywood, squeezed in before a late screening of Denzel Washington‘s The Great Debaters. In attendance were James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Vanessa Redgrave et al, and while niceties were exchanged and sincere appreciation for the film aired, there was also a good bit of chatter about the prospects of awards for other movies, particularly in advance of the respective year-end votes from the Los Angeles and Boston film critics tomorrow, and New York’s group on Monday. This left me feeling that a lot of Atonement‘s support is of the soft variety, like Iowa caucus poll numbers — enough juice to secure a Best Picture nod, probably, but not necessarily the stuff of a surefire front-runner.