On Chesil Beach, written by Ian McEwan, based on his novel - Eight out of 10

On Chesil Beach, written by Ian McEwan, based on his novel

Eight out of 10

Like any other novel by Ian Mc Ewan – well, yours truly has read six so far – On Chesil Beach is an accomplished, remarkable thought provoking, intriguing, insightful, psychological book that deals with the issue of guilt, mistakes made in young life – like some of the other masterpieces, including the perhaps better known Atonement.

The screenplay written by the fabulous writer might be flawless, as close to the value of the original material as possible, but the result is however less satisfying, perhaps because it is so difficult to use complicated, philosophical, descriptive, long phrases for the medium of the big screen.

Another handicap might be the high expectations with which a reader of the novel comes to the cinema – indeed; one rule purported by some positive psychologists is to “lower your expectations”.

Then there is what one might call the main flaw of this motion picture, which is the acting – well, there is a good possibility that this was affected and worsen by the relatively unknown director – that appears to be less than effective, at times it looks like the protagonists are cold, lifeless even, inanimate, awkward, lifeless and artificial, sometimes melodramatic and exaggerated.

This is a surprise id we consider at least the performance of Saoirse Ronan, who, at the extraordinarily young age of twenty-five, has already been nominated for three (!) Academy Awards, for her contribution to Atonement, Lady Bird and Brooklyn.

As for Billy Howle, if his acting in Dunkirk has been excellent – like for the rest of the glorious stellar cast – there is less work to refer to and it could be a misunderstanding of the message of On Chesil Beach, the tremendous difficulty of playing this part or indeed, perhaps most likely, a wrong perspective on his performance, which could have been splendid and the undersigned has just missed it.

Then there is the fact that the relationship between the main characters of the film, Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting, is bizarre, outré and the personages themselves are acting in a strange manner, the girl is so much repulsed by sex and physical intimacy as to feel nausea.

Under the circumstances, it could then be argued that the acting is spot on and the fact that the protagonists appear on screen as non-emotional, sometimes off putting, otherworldly, annoying is exactly what we should expect.

The young groom is taken beyond his capacity to control, keep calm by the rejection of a bride that asks, within hours of their marriage, that he takes lovers, for she does not like and want sex, becomes mad and with his hurt pride rejects the proposition that perhaps so many cavorting males would enthusiastically and gratefully embrace.

To end with, this note has included the original review of the book, which again, feels much better than the film:

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan – the book

Having read Atonement, Amsterdam, Black Dogs and now On Chesil Beach, the under signed has the feeling that Guilt is theme that transcends all these four masterpieces and one of the aspects they share, apart from their intrinsic, exceptional value…

Atonement is included on the All TIME 100 Novels list – and reviewed here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/atonement-by-ian-mcewan.html - Amsterdam has won the Booker Prize, while the other have been shortlisted for the same, perhaps most important award for literature written in English (all are noted on at: http://realini.blogspot.com/)

The protagonists of On Chesil Beach are Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting, two newlyweds that are about to spend their wedding night near the beach in the title and they are nervous, excited and worried about it, although for very different reasons.

The young man, a graduate of studies in history, is not a consummate Don Juan, his experience with intimacy is very limited, the courtship of his wife has been strained, tense, frustrating, seeing as she had not allowed him to become intimate with her, except for hard won, small concessions like kissing lightly her breasts, which he had barely seen before their night in the matrimonial suite.

Florence Ponting is a violinist, leader of a string quartet, where she imposes her views as the first violin, a determined, excellent musician, who is in her element when playing great music, Mozart, Bach, which the hero can barely understand, but he promises to be seating in the third row, at 9C, when the woman he loves would have her first performance with a big audience.

She comes from a wealthy family, her father is a successful business owner, who offered to hire his would be son-in-law, before the couple married and gave them a wedding gift of two thousand pounds, a substantial sum, the equivalent of about one hundred thousand today, perhaps.

Edward has had a difficult time growing up, especially after what had happened to his mother, while she was pregnant with twins, waiting at the station as the train arrived and an irresponsible traveler hurried to get off and the heavy door which escaped the stupid character’s control hit the woman, cracked her skull and left her with brain damage.

Lionel Mayhew, the teacher who is the sick woman’s husband, has to care for three children and Marjorie, who does not know, most of the time, what is happening around her, in a house where they clean only the visible parts, the running of the household is a tremendous task, when coupled with the other duties.

Florence has had to face some other issues, like the stiffness, coldness, remoteness of Violet Ponting, a mother that has never caressed, kissed her daughter, an university professor that challenges her future son-in-law once, while he drives one of their cars, considering that there are similarities between the medieval cults that the young man studies and wants to make the subject of his thesis, and his own preoccupations.

Nevertheless, the philosophy teacher is the one who has the high moral ground – especially for someone who has lived under the communism brought and imposed by the soviets – when she tries to point out that the position taken by her daughter and her boyfriend is wrong.

Nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent, the Soviet Union is a tyranny, a state where people are sent to labor camps, lying is the official doctrine, there are show trials and ultimately, Stalin and his acolytes have killed many more of their compatriots than Hitler…has

Florence feels the soviets have a benevolent, benefic role in the world, but this is not her only flawed analysis, the more important one, in the context of her relationship with Edward refers to her feelings towards him and the repulsion, sickness, fear she feels when contemplating the sex of the wedding night.

She knows that this subject should have been treated differently, but she feared his reaction, she did not want to upset the man she loves – does she really love him, one may wonder- and in his turn, he has his own anxieties that have not been brought forward and may ultimately contribute to an argument or worse.

Because she is so prudish, delicate, innocent or some other reason, he had not been able to involve her in any of his fantasies: during the showing of A Taste of Honey – excellent film by the way, with Rita Tushingam – he tried to take her hand and place it on his penis.

The result was that his previous advancements have been all pushed back, it took months to get back to the rather childish- especially seen from the perspective of the flower power mentality that would be arriving soon – games that they were playing, up to the waited climax of the Special Night.

Alas, their case seem to be textbook, if we consider two titans of psychology, Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar and John Gottman – the author of the quintessential The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work – they both emphasize the need to know your partner in detail.

Or the two young people have no idea about major concerns that prevent them from being happy, and when Florence makes a daring proposition, it seems not just too late, but placed in the worst moment, whereas if they both had talked about the issues, it would have been another world, of Bliss and Happiness.

As it is, she tries to protect the man she (thinks she) loves, up to the point where she starts hurting him, but at the same time, she keeps for herself the loathing for the moment when she would lose her virginity, about which she has read from a book and she has the most nauseating feelings when she anticipates what would happen.

Then again, the chef d’oeuvre is evidently complex – if quite short and accessible – and deals with so many issues, not just the argument in favor of sex before marriage, which would prevent potential catastrophes like the one hanging on the horizon, near the Chesil Beach…