On Chesil Beach (Drama)

In this movie Ian McEwan has adapted his novella about a honeymoon couple and their struggle to physically connect. Set in 1962, a time between the conservatism of the 1950s and the start of the ‘new age’, Florence (Saoirse Ronan) and Edward (Billy Howle) arrive as virgin newlyweds at a seaside hotel on windswept Chesil Beach. Their awkwardness

when alone – even at dinner – intensifies as intimacy looms. Initially interpreted as wedding night jitters, it is soon clear that something else is creating the divide that has devastating consequences. Director Dominic Cooke captures the disturbing way in which, for that generation, the wedding night was like a sacrificial ceremony.