On Chesil Beach
Adaptation of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel, about a newlywed couple whose honeymoon retreat becomes a comedy of sexual errors.
ON CHESIL BEACH has been called both a horror story and a comedy, because it's about what happens when newlyweds attempt to consummate. Florence and Edward are on their honeymoon at the English seaside. It is 1962, and overcast. Florence is a disciplined violinist, raised in a cold vice of middle-class repression. Flashbacks show her mother crushing all impulse with propriety. Edward offers Florence some promise of freedom. He was raised in the countryside in a more volatile family, and found liberation in literature and ideas. The two arrive at a Chesil Beach guest house in love and ready to begin their life together, but hopelessly ill-equipped for their first night.
Adapted for the screen by McEwan himself and directed by former Royal Court Theatre head Dominic Cooke, this is a beautifully precise anatomy of thwarted desire.