Review of On Chesil Beach, directed by Dominic Cooke

The theme of my life before I ship myself off to South Korea and India for an entire fourteen months is this: I’m catching up on all of the movies I said I was going to watch like three years ago. I have a terrible habit of getting excited about a movie and then not watching it for several years.

Anyways, On Chesil Beach is something I’ve known about ever since it came out originally, got excited about because I saw Saoirse Ronan and I love her as an actress, and then completely forgot about. It took me so many years before I got to this movie, simply because I was bored and landed on it in my movie roulette.

I was specifically trying to get through my Kanopy list of movies to watch, which is why I ended up watching this. I have fifteen credits a month through my local library, and because I moving to the other side of the world temporarily, I needed to get through all of my free credits before I lose them for a while.

I’m starting to ramble, so let’s get into the review, shall we?

A young couple madly in love slowly realizes that things might not work out the way they want them to.

This is a story about Florence and Edward, who, in 1962, met for the first time.

The two have not really dated anyone else before this moment, leading to the fact that they haven’t really had experience with anyone really. They have both graduated from University College (Edward) and Oxford (Florence) with their respective degrees, and they’re ready to take on the world.

These two come from completely different worlds, as there’s already a distinct difference in the kind of education they received. Florence was a violinist at Oxford, a private school, while Edward studied history at a public research university. I got the sense early on there were some class differences between these two.

Their romance is a whirlwind, and they end up meeting each other’s families pretty early on in the relationship. One could say the spark was really there between the two of them, and that things might end well if this keeps up. They’re deeply in love, and they decide to get married.

Florence has some deep anxieties though around sex, but she doesn’t really have an avenue to talk about it. It comes to an ugly conclusion when they’re on their honeymoon at Chesil Beach, freshly married. Their differences come to light in such a harsh way, with Edward getting a temper and Florence realizing her trauma with her father.

They try to have sex, and we learn Florence was molested by her father. Edward gets angry though and yells at her, leaving Florence to flee the room and run along the beach. Edward chases after her and they have another argument, where he pretty much chastises her. There is very little understanding going on here.

Florence then gets honest with him saying that she can only be platonic because of her trauma, which Edward refuses to believe. They decide to end their marriage right there, going back to their families and having to explain what happened.

Thirteen years later, Edward runs a record shop. A girl comes in and he realizes this is Florence’s daughter. We learn he is still regretting what happened after all of these years. He never found anyone else.

More time passes. It is 2007, and Edward is elderly and never married. He discovers that Florence and her quarter will be giving a farewell concert, ending their run. Her husband is in the quartet, but Edward goes anyways. He sits at the front, meets eyes with Florence, and they both cry.

Overall Thoughts

I wanted this to be a movie that impacted me more, especially as I can relate to Florence a lot. I don’t know if I could be in a marriage at her age where I wasn’t a platonic wife. I just don’t see myself in that situation, which is why I could really relate to her fears and anxieties.

However, I think this would’ve been great if it just focused on her personal journey and growth. We focus on Edward and how she becomes the one who ultimately got away, his first love, but I wanted to see how she got to that point at the end. Clearly she’s in a marriage and found someone who understands her.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I wanted more from this movie. It has a good premise and conflict, but it didn’t hit the right notes for me. Maybe it did for someone else, and that’s fine. Taste is so subjective.

Go watch this if you’re interested!

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