"On Chesil Beach"

In 1962 England, a young couple find their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.

So that is how this movie is summarized on it's IMDB page.  it is a pure weepy, soap opera of a movie, one that I  would normally have no interest in watching, and when I watched it today, it lived up to those expectations.  However, when I first heard of this movie, I knew it was one I wanted to see for one reason only.

It starred Saoirse Ronan:

I have been enamored of Miss Ronan, now all of 24 years of age, ever since seeing her in "Brooklyn" two years ago, and again last year in "Lady Bird". I truly believe that she will be the next Great Actress, the next generation's Meryl Streep.  She alone is a reason to see any movie that she makes, and "On Chesil Beach" is no exception.

The movie:  On a young English couple's wedding night in 1962, we see in flashbacks the courtship between the two as they prepare to consummate their marriage.  Things don't go exactly as planned or as either of them would have hoped.  How this affects both Florence (Ronan) and Edward (Billy Howle) is then played out in two flash forwards to 1975 and 2007.

I watched it today via Amazon Prime streaming.  I'm not sure if it ever actually played in movie theaters in Pittsburgh.  It's worth seeing just to watch Saoirse Ronan perform.  Kind of like the home team in football gets three points from the bookies when the betting lines are set, Saoirse Ronan is worth at least one star to any movie that she is in.

The Grandstander rates this one at Two and one-half stars.