The Beach (2000)
Grade: D+
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen, Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle, and Guillaume Canet
Director: Danny Boyle
Rated R for language, violence, and brief nudity


This review contains mild spoilers. Please read with caution. I don't reveal anything too astonishing, nothing that couldn't be guessed from previews, but I felt I should warn you.

Sometimes you don't realize you're watching a bad movie while you are actually watching it. Sometimes you really have to think about the film after your viewing, and that's when you come to the realization that it's a really bad film. This is the case with Danny Boyle's "The Beach." It's enjoyable to watch, but it's not really that good.

Everyone is on a quest for perfection and freedom. This film just focus' on Richard (DiCaprio). Richard is an American and he has gone to Bangkok for a vacation. In his hotel room one night, Richard receives a visit from the loony bin next door, Daffy (Carlyle). Daffy gives Richard a map to a private island where the water is clear and sand is white. Not wanting to go it alone, Richard invites his neighbor's on the other side to come along with him. There is a girl, Franciose (Ledoyen) and her boyfriend Etienne (Canet). Etienne sets up the whole trip, and when they arrive, the find a community that inhabits lives at the beach.

Sal (Swinton) is leader of the community. They've been around for six years and they value their secrecy. Little do they know, Richard had handed out the map to two guys. The farmers on the island, have told Sal that no more people are allowed to come. When the two guys try to come with two other girls, this sets them off. The rest is just one of the most moronic endings I have ever seen in film.

"The Beach" is good for a while. Watching the characters come together and get to the island is enjoyable. When they finally reach the island and start searching for the beach, it picks up energy. But just as things get good and interesting, the film undermines the moment with an overbearing score. Like when the three main characters jump a cliff to get to the beach. They jump, yeah, that's all well and good, but then the score kicks in and the characters rejoice. Cringe-inducing moments like this are what kill the first half of the film. And that's a shame too, because the first half is more enjoyable than the labored and screwed up second half.

Richard goes psycho in the second half. See, Sal had found out that he gave the people the map, and she saw them trying to find the beach. So, she awakens Richard in the middle of the night and takes him to a hill on the island where is to watch out for them, get the map back, and turn them away. However, while he's waiting for them to come, he goes insane. He starts talking about the now-dead Daffy, and thinking that the whole thing is some sort of game. The guy goes over the edge and it's not very enjoyable to watch. It sometimes forced me to laugh at the picture, which is never a good sign when you're watching a dramatic thriller.

What I disappointed me most was Danny Boyle ("Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting"). I like his style of filmmaking, but it yeilds poor results here. Sure, sometimes it works, but never to the effect that it worked in "Trainspotting." I'm not a huge fan of "Trainspotting," but I admired the artistic approach, and how it elevated the film. His style was somewhat muted in "Shallow Grave," but that film is the best out of the three. I noticed some similarities between the "Grave" and "The Beach." First is that the characters find something that makes them happy. In Grave it was money; in "Beach" it was the beach. Then something happens that makes one of the characters go into seclusion. In "Grave" it was Christopher Eccleston's ("Elizabeth") character. Here, it's Richard. But all that aside, the stylistic approach here is not put to good use. It actually contributes to some of the more corny parts of the film. For example, when two characters are taking pictures of the sky. If you've seen the film, you know what happens.

The acting here is all fine, except for DiCaprio. During some of his emotional scenes, he looked strained and forced. His portrayal just didn't work for me. It played a large part in the film's downfall. Ledoyen is very good in her role. But her character is sometimes in the forefront and then in the last half of the film she's kind of tossed into the background. She's a beautiful girl and she can act too. I believed her emotional scenes, but I wanted to see her character become more three dimensional. Canet is really only in the film for the first 45 minutes, but he too, is just put into the background and we really don't hear much from him throughout the remainder of the film.

For me, Tilda Swinton put in the only truly effective performance. At the beginning, she is just this woman who runs this secret community, but then she is their friend also. As she turns on Richard and makes him stand watch for these people who should be arriving sometime, she outshines DiCaprio. Her final breakdown at the end is also very well done, and I kind of felt sorry for her, because she has put blood and sweat into maintaining this community only to have it's downfall come on it's six year anniversary.

"The Beach" just disappointed me in so many ways. The story and screenplay are disjointed. The lead actor can't really handle his role. The supporting characters are more interesting than the lead. The final half is boring. The denoument is moronic. However, the film is technically great, with beautiful cinematography. It just failed in so many unredeemable ways. I feel sorry for the people in the cast, but most of all for Boyle because this film could've been great.


-Brian Jones, July 2002