On Chesil Beach
(15) ★★★
IAN McEwan’s 2007 Booker Prize-nominated novella gets the big-screen treatment in this restrained and melancholic exploration of young love’s hidden anxieties.
Florence (Saoirse Ronan, sensational as ever) and Edward (one-to-watch Billy Howle) are a newly married couple in 1962 England who have travelled to an idyllic hotel near Chesil Beach in Dorset for their honeymoon.
But their relationship isn’t as rosy as it seems. Soon after arriving they find themselves unable to connect in the ways they had hoped, with feelings of intimate insecurities creeping into their relationship just as soon as it’s started.
Working from a script by McEwan himself, stage and TV turned feature film director Dominic Cooke tells the story with an old-fashioned stateliness that, ironically, feels refreshing in this day and age. He uses the proposed, ridiculously presumed hotel room consummation of the marriage as a kind of force which the repeated flashbacks revolve around.
From their first meeting of eyes across the room at Oxford to Florence’s introduction into Edward’s complex life as a caring helping hand for his mother Marjorie (a terrific Anne Marie Duff), who has brain damage, the narrative filling in of blanks makes clear that their relationship is one born out of passion and a deep sense of connection.
But they are crippled by a misunderstanding and inexplicably ingrained fear of sex, owing to the fact they come from households headed by a generation – particularly Florence’s prim and proper mother Violet (Emily Watson) – who wouldn’t dare broach the matter much less explain the mechanics of it.
But how important is sex to a marriage? Is intimacy a deal-breaker? It’s a quandary at the heart of a handsomely made period piece that is painted with a mood of melancholia and longing, one that is so importantly set in a very specific period of the past, the repressive mores of which seem quaintly dated.
The whole thing is informed by awkward silences hanging between even more awkward dialogue – sometimes what’s being said is stilted, cryptic and lacking in self-awareness to the point where it can take away from the heart-rending poetry of the story rather than adding to it.
The pressure cooker sense of anticipation found in the first half works a lot better than the more heavy-handed second half. It leans more and more into unintentionally hokey territory as it goes on, eventually skipping over a couple of eras like so many pebbles across a picturesque countryside pond.
However, although tied up in a way that feels too self-consciously neat for its own good, it’s driven by an affecting sense of sad tragedy which touches your heart and an engaging thematic curiosity that gets into your head.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here