On Chesil Beach review: The honeymoon's over

Those who treat every comma in an Ian McEwan novel as sacred should prepare themselves for bad news.

This film of the book deviates in crucial ways from the 2007 novella. Since McEwan wrote the screenplay he’s got no one to blame but himself.

It’s 1962 and nervous newlyweds Florence (Saoirse Ronan), a brilliant violinist, and Edward (Billy Howle), a budding historian, are honeymooning in Dorset. On their wedding night they force down dinner and then feast on each other, with traumatic results.

Basically, Edward prematurely ejaculates over his beloved. In the book, Florence’s reaction is so intense that, as the fluid dries, your own skin crawls. In the film, by contrast, we see an inoffensive blob and Florence gets a bit fussy. And that’s it.

Years later, Edward is running a record store and, by pure coincidence, has a conversation with a youngster that gives him vital clues about Florence. This encounter (not in the book) is sentimental and contrived.

This is director Dominic Cooke’s first film (he usually works in theatre). He over-directs the sublime Ronan (she was more subtle, age 13, in McEwan’s Atonement). That said, she creates some lovely moments, while Howle excels in the scenes between Edward and his mother (Anne-Marie Duff).

You can’t doubt the film’s good intentions. Its crime is the Hollywood ending. Maybe McEwan felt the book’s finale (which mentions nothing about Florence except her career) left her in emotional limbo. In correcting it he’s opted for a ridiculous form of closure.

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