On Chesil Beach: Acclaimed Theater Director Dominic Cooke Makes His Feature Film Directorial Debut with this Ian McEwan Adaptation

BY JBFC Senior Programmer, Andrew Jupin

An adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel of the same name, On Chesil Beach marks the feature directorial debut of Dominic Cooke. It had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and premiered in the U.K. and United States in May.

While this may be Cooke’s first feature film, he is no stranger to directing. He helmed the entire second season of The Hollow Crown at the BBC—featuring adaptations of Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part II, and Richard III—which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Miniseries. And with those Shakespeare credits, it should be no surprise that Cooke got his start in the theater. In recent years, you may have seen his work in our World Stage on Screen series—in 2012, he directed The Comedy of Errors, and later went on to direct Follies, both for the National Theatre. He’s already in pre-production on his next film, the Cold War thriller Ironbark, with Benedict Cumberbatch. It makes total sense that On Chesil Beach would be a project that attracted him considering how much this film feels like a play, even though it was adapted from a novel.

The film’s screenwriter, author Ian McEwan, is no stranger to adapting his own work—or having his own work adapted by someone else—for the big screen. He adapted his novel, The Innocent, for John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) in 1993. Enduring Love, another novel, was adapted by Joe Penhall for Roger Michell’s (Le Week-End) film of the same name in 2004. McEwan has also tried his hand at original screenplays. An original script of his became 1993’s The Good Son, starring Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood—if you haven’t seen it, Culkin plays a “bad seed” type child who terrorizes his younger cousin, played by Wood.

But by far the biggest success McEwan has had with his work being adapted for film was when Christopher Hampton adapted his novel Atonement for Joe Wright in 2007. That film went on to snag seven Oscar nominations—including Best Picture—and win one. Wright’s film, like On Chesil Beach, also featured the incredibly talented Saoirse Ronan in a major role.

Ronan spent much of last year introducing herself to a larger audience when Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, in which she played the titular Lady Bird, sky rocketed into the public eye and became one of the most successful indies of the year, grabbing five Oscar nominations. In addition to On Chesil Beach, she’ll also star in a new version of The Seagull this year (alongside her On Chesil Beach co-star Billy Howle.)

Howle, still a relative newcomer, first hit American movie screens playing the younger version of Jim Broadbent’s character in Ritesh Batra’s The Sense of an Ending last year. He also had a bit role in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk in 2017. On Chesil Beach is his first shot at a lead role in a major motion picture.

As with all book-to-film adaptations, the question everyone always goes to first is how much or little the film diverged from the book. The standard remark we’ve all heard is “the book was better,” a stock observation usually made by folks who read the source material first and weren’t pleased with the changes the film adaptation made. I don’t believe this is something that’s always true—Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a cinematic masterwork and it’s absolutely nothing like Stephen King’s novel. The filmed version of On Chesil Beach makes some drastic changes from the novel, and I will be curious to see how audiences react to them all.

For suggested viewing, I’ve put together a list that combines some additional Ian McEwan adaptations that are worth watching, as well as other great films from British cinema history. I think often because they’re in English and usually have some stars we’re familiar with here in America, we forget that the United Kingdom has its own rich history of cinema, and in a lot of cases there are tons of smaller films that slip through the cracks over here because they never see a huge U.S. release. So, for your viewing pleasure at your own leisure:

The Innocent (John Schlesinger)

Enduring Love (Roger Michell)

Atonement (Joe Wright)

The Comfort Of Strangers (Paul Schrader)

45 Years (Andrew Haigh)

Billy Liar (John Schlesinger)

The Man In The White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick)

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)

If… (Lindsay Anderson)

Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle)

The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie)

This Is England (Shane Meadows)

Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson)

Brief Encounter (David Lean)

Tickets for On Chesil Beach are on sale now.