Atonement and Evil

Has anyone out there seen the movie, Atonement? What did you think? Good, bad? I saw the preview and it looked intriguing.

I recently read a review of it in Critique magazine where the author of the book upon which the movie is based, Ian McEwan (a pronounced atheist) gave a quote about the nature of evil in a PBS interview after the 9/11 attacks.

I don't really believe in evil at all. I mean, I don't believe in God, and I certainly don't therefore, believe in some sort of supernatural or trans-historical force that somehow organizes life on dark or black principles. I think there are only people behaving-and sometimes behaving monstrously. And sometimes their monstrous behavior is so beyond our abilities to explain it, we have to reach for this numinous notion of evil.

See how his logic implodes upon itself here?

If evil is not real and is not something to be believed in as a reality, then why use the word, "monstrous"? If evil doesn't exist then we can't classify anything as "monstrous". We are simply reduced to preferences. One person may prefer murder and betrayal, another may prefer grace and mercy, but to use the word "monstrous" is foolishness if we deny the existence of evil. Monstrosities don't exist if evil does not exist since a monstrosity is by definition something evil. Even atheists are forced to borrow from the Christian worldview to make sensible comments about big questions in life.

See how he sneaks that in the back door?