Underwhelming romantic drama.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 10, 2024

Ronan is stunning as Florence. Simultaneously fierce and delicate, she is the embodiment of a young woman who navigates the traps of heterosexuality -- without a feminist slogan or women’s group in sight.

| May 20, 2022

It's a movie that stumbles out of the gate. But after a fumbling first act, the story deepens alongside the narrative conflicts.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 7, 2021

Tediously balancing easy charm with the uncomfortable gravity of unintended consequences, "On Chesil Beach" looks to scale that icy peak of jilting jitters from a picturesque locale beset by ultimatums.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2021

The plot is a fascinating, universally sympathetic one - but also equally entirely of its own time and place.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 25, 2021

Chesil Beach feels more in the mold they had heretofore established of indistinctive films with the air of respectability and little of the vision. So much of the film should work that it's a small wonder so little does.

| Dec 10, 2020

This is the kind of story and film that McEwan needed to write, the kind of tale a scribe must get out of his head. It's also the perfect fodder for a romantic drama on the big screen.

| Nov 10, 2020

Despite the efforts of its leading lady, even she can't save On Chesil Beach from drowning.

| Oct 9, 2020

Dominic Cooke was a perfect choice to direct.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 18, 2020

On Chesil Beach takes an alarming dip in quality towards the end. It's a miracle the thing still works enough overall.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 24, 2020

This is a complex, mature film that is an impressive debut by director Dominic Cooke. I'm really looking forward to what Billy Howle does next, as he has made a significant impression. It engaged me throughout and the story goes in an unexpected direction

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 2, 2020

The young leads are pitch-perfect.

| Jun 2, 2020

[A] deceptively intense and insightful romantic drama...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 2, 2020

Once McEwan fully exposes the couple's compromised relationship there are some strong scenes of them surveying the wreckage together.

| Mar 10, 2020

Overall, On Chesil Beach features strong performances from Ronan and Howle, whose characters' romance serves as the antithesis of a conventional love story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2019

Despite strong performances and a promising premise, On Chesil Beach lacks a directorial vision to elevate it to a breathtaking work of art, and suffers from a script that doesn't know where to stop for its own good on screen.

| May 28, 2019

[It] builds a touching but frankly-told period love story that underscores the power of social-sexual attitudes over love and how life can turn on moment to moment choices.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 24, 2019

The delay may have had something to do with the tone: if sex sells, a movie blaming sex for the ruination of a perfectly good love story is a hard sell indeed.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 16, 2019

There is a significant backstory that - although purposefully left ambiguous - is a detriment to an otherwise quite powerful period piece.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 12, 2019

"On Chesil Beach" can't even be called nihilistic, because even nihilism requires commitment.

| Original Score: D | Feb 2, 2019