Diamonds are a girl’s best friend...
A pair of films opening at Campbeltown Picture House (CPH) this week seem to feature similar themes of the sea. One is a heist movie and the other uses the dramatic landscape of England’s Chesil beach to mirror the drama between a pair of newlyweds. On Chesil Beach is set in summer 1962. England is still a year away from huge social changes: Beatlemania, the sexual revolution and the Swinging Sixties. It is the wedding of young 20-something couple Florence and Edward. On their honeymoon, they dine in their room at a stuffy, sedate hotel near Chesil Beach in Dorset. Their conversation becomes more tense and awkward, as the prospect of consummating their marriage approaches. Finally, they argue, Florence storms from the room and out of the hotel, Edward pursues her and their row continues on Chesil Beach. Out on the beach on their fateful wedding day, one of them makes a major decision that will utterly change both of their lives forever. First, in the 2001 original, it was the boys’ team led by Danny Ocean, aka Hollywood hunk George Clooney, in Ocean’s 11. It has taken 17 years for Ocean’s 8, an all-girl heist team, to hit the big screen. Yet the blurb states Debbie Ocean has been devising the biggest heist of her life for just five years, eight months, 12 days ... and counting. She assembles a team of the best in their field, starting with her partner-in-crime Lou Miller. Together, they recruit a crew of specialists: jeweller Amita; street con Constance; expert fence Tammy; hacker Nine Ball; and fashion designer Rose. The target is a cool $150 million in diamonds. The plan is rock solid, but everything will need to be flawless if the team is to get in and get away with the ice. All in plain sight.