CheerupSilver
Very Cool!!!
SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
TxMike
My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library.It has a British "period piece" feel although the period is 1962. Two new college graduates from different backgrounds, which was still a big deal in 1960s England, get married. She is Saoirse Ronan as Florence Ponting, violinist and leader of a string quartet. He is Billy Howle as Edward Mayhew, much less refined and often confused by his role in the world.The movie starts with the two of them in their hotel room, about to spend their first night together, figuratively and literally, and much of the backstory is told in a series of flashbacks. The movie is based on a popular book, and the author also became the scriptwriter for the movie, which is a nice touch. It moves a bit deliberately at times but we found the movie very worthwhile. It plays on a theme that certain moments in life create crossroads and the decisions we make each time can have a great and lasting effect on the rest of our lives.
bc-liu
Love tends to be a forever topic of human beings. This movie also is structured around it but has something unusual. It tells us a story based on a controversy over the relationship between love and sex. The main male character and the female, they have a romantic start which prompts them to be engaged further in a marriage. However, it is just the night when they were married and went on a honey moon trip near the beach and were about to have closer physical touch that their relationship finally ended up into a strangeness. It is the difference in ieas of love? Different attitudes toward love and sex? It is both. However, the end of story reminds us of patience that changes everything as the time passes by. If you do not want to regret that the man in the movie, you have to learn from his misfortunes. Never wait till the tears fulfill your eyes to take actions.
Gordon-11
This film tells the story of a newly married couple who goes through a difficult wedding day.The scenery is beautiful, and the acting is great. However, the story is just far too slow to capture me. It seems to be a good film to watch at 1.5 times the speed. The ending is good, but the journey to get could have been much swifter.
bob-the-movie-man
Set against Dorset's spectacular shingle bank of Chesil Beach (which is a bitch to walk along!) the story, set primarily in 1962, joins two newly-weds Florence (Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn", "Lady Bird") and Edward (Billy Howle, "Dunkirk") about to embark on the sexual adventure of their conjugation at a seaside hotel. The timing of the film is critical: 1962 really marked the watershed between the staid conservatism and goody-two-shoes-ness of the 50's and the sexual liberation of the swinging sixties. Sex before marriage was frowned upon. The problem for Florence and Edward is that sex after marriage is looking pretty unlikely too! For the inexperienced couple have more hang-ups about sex than there are pebbles on the beach.The lead-up to their union is squirm-inducing to watch: a silent silver-service meal in their room; incompetent fumbling with zippers; shoes that refuse to come off. To prolong the agony for the viewer, we work through flashbacks of their first meeting at Oxford University and their disfunctional family lives: for Florence a bullying father and mother (Samuel West and Emily Watson) and for Edward a loving but stressed father (TV regular, Adrian Scarborough) but mentally impaired mother (Anne-Marie Duff, "Suffragette", "Before I Go To Sleep").As Ian McEwan is known to do (as per the end of "Atonement" for example), there are a couple of clever "Oh My God" twists in the tale: one merely hinted at in flashback; another involving a record-buying child that is also unresolved but begs a massive question. The first half of the film is undoubtedly better than the last: while the screenplay is going for the "if only" twist of films like "Sliding Doors" and "La La Land", the film over-stretches with some dodgy make-up where alternative actors would have been a far better choice. The ending still had the power to move me though.Saoirse Ronan is magnificent: I don't think I've seen the young Irish-American in a film I didn't enjoy. Here she is back with a McEwan adaptation again and bleeds discomfort with every line of her face. Her desperate longing to talk to someone - such as the kindly probing vicar - is constantly counteracted by her shame and embarassment. Howle also holds his own well (no pun intended) but when up against the acting tour de force of Ronan he is always going to appear in second place. A brave performance comes from Anne-Marie Duff who shines as the mentally wayward mother. The flashback where we see how she came to be that way is wholly predicatable but still manages to shock. And Duff is part of a strong ensemble cast who all do their bit.Another star of the show for me is the photography by Sean Bobbitt ("12 Years a Slave") which portrays the windswept Dorset beach beautifully but manages to get the frame close and claustrophobic when it needs to be. Wide panoramas with characters barely on the left and right of the frame will play havoc with DVD ratios on TV, but work superbly on the big screen. Directed by stage-director Dominic Cooke, in his movie-directing debut, this is a brave story to try to move from page to screen and while it is not without faults it is a ball-achingly sad tale that moved me. Recommended if you enjoyed the similarly sad tale of "Atonement".(Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the full graphical review or One Mann's Movies on Facebook. Thanks).
