Based on Ian McEwan’s (Atonement) novella by the same name, director Dominic Cooke proves that just because you have flint and tinder doesn’t always mean that you can make fire with his memorable and poignant, yet sometimes underwhelming and often slow On Chesil Beach. Not only did Cooke have McEwan’s novel to work with, but the author wrote the screenplay himself. Now, I’m not a huge fan of comparing the book to the movie in my reviews (most of the time, as in the case of this one, it’s because I haven’t read the book), but I have read a couple of reviews that say that the movie did not do the book justice, that the final scenes of the film weren’t even in the book, and that even what McEwan’s main novel points were changed or not flushed out. But since I liked the movie, as did most critics and other moviegoers (68% and 94%, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes), I’m willing to forget the omissions mentioned explicitly in the unfavorable reviews on Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper’s websites. Nevertheless, I felt a relatable component of this 1962 English set movie to 2018. The relatable component could be applicable in many specific situations in physically romantic relationships between two people.
Category Archives: Emily Watson
Angela’s Ashes (1999)
A couple of months ago, I found an article in Entertainment Weekly that had a list of the most depressing books ever written. And near the top of this list was Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. So, along with a list of other books I wanted to read, I went to Barnes and Noble and searched for the book. I came up empty, which surprised me because I had long thought this book was a classic and one read in English classes in many high schools. And I know I could have downloaded it or my Kindle, but I’m really about a 65%/35% reader in terms of hard copies over Kindle. And I like to read my classics as hard copies. In any case, fast-forward a month, and I go to a different Barnes and Noble looking for the book and again come up empty. So I texted my friend Sarah, and she told me I needed to check out the biography section and not the fiction/classics section. Who knew? And there it was, along with about 20 other copies of it. So I read the book over two weeks and loved it. It’s my favorite book of 2015. And, yes, I do rank my books just like I do my movies. I don’t blog about it because I watch more movies than reading books.
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