Saoirse Ronan, Emily Watson, Anne-Marie Duff
“They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night.” Adapted by Ian McEwan from his own Booker Prize-winning novella, On Chesil Beach is the directorial debut of former Royal Court Theatre head Dominic Cooke. Starring Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) and Billy Howle (Dunkirk) and featuring Emily Watson, Anne-Marie Duff and Samuel West, it’s poised to be one of this autumn’s key prestige dramas and a definite awards contender.
England, 1962: two young lovers marry and begin their honeymoon on the Dorset coast. Edward (Howle) and Florence (Ronan) hail from very different backgrounds but, deeply in love, the full complexity of their relationship only becomes clear on their wedding night as they struggle to reconcile their approaches to sex. Confused, uncertain and hopelessly ill-equipped to talk honestly of their fears and desires, they do not yet know that this tragicomic situation will shape the rest of their lives.
A beautifully precise and searching film fascinated by the repressive effects of ‘propriety’ – a notion still hard at work in English society in the early ‘60s and perhaps entirely antithetical to love and passion – On Chesil Beach leads to a shattering conclusion.
