As Appealing As A Trip To The Beach On A Rainy Day

Rating: 4/10 (10 December 2007)

Ah backpacking across the world . What an exciting thing it is - but only if you're a rare and remarkable person . Travelling all over the world isn't all it's cracked up to be . You might get a one night stand , you might get stoned but to be honest couldn't you have got that at home ? Did you really need to go the ends of the earth for that ? If you're a rare remarkable person you'll also get altitude sickness , suffer dysentery , catch ringworm and under go a rabies scare . You'll have wasted all your money on plane tickets and inoculations and the only thing you'll have to show for it is a small paragraph in the obituary column of the local newspaper after dying from a rare tropical disease
THE BEACH is very similar in many ways . It's based on a well regarded novel by Alex Garland , features Leonardo Dicaprio a megastar after his role in TITANIC and is directed by Danny Boyle one of Britain's greatest living directors and yet it's a film that is difficult to enjoy and it's easy to explain why - characterisation
Take one American pretty boy , send him in Thailand , stick him on an island with a bunch of selfish , unsympathetic people and watch a potentially good film fall apart . Did anyone like the characters in this movie ? Neither did I . I haven't read Garland's novel but I'm led to believe there's a scene where a giant squid is washed up on the beach and the characters eat it only to end up with food poisoning . I would have enjoyed this movie much more if all the characters had died from food poisoning . When you watch a movie and the most likable character is a mad mental foul mouthed dope smoking Scotsman then you know the producers have got a problem
Another thing I had problems with is the way Leonardo Dicaprio's character Richard suddenly turns from inquisitive backpacker into Colonel Kurtz . Something similar happens in another Boyle movie 28 DAYS LATER but at least in that movie you're aware of the character's motive even if it is fairly unconvincing . Here you do find yourself wondering the explanation ended up on the cutting room floor or even if it was excluded at draft stage . Not only that but you find that the characters remain unchanged by events at the end therefore there is zero character development
Danny Boyle has said that he makes quintessential British films and it's difficult to disagree with him . TRAINSPOTTING has a strong feel of time and place while 28 DAYS LATER mirrors the British apocalypse writers of the 1950s . THE BEACH with its exotic foreign location and its American star definitely feels like it's made for an American audience and Boyle tries too hard to pander to their taste . That's why THE BEACH is probably Boyle's weakest film to date