A mixed movie.

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 2001)

Here's my thought of 'The Beach': Half of it was good while the other half drowned out the good parts.
I saw this movie for one reason and one reason only, Leonardo DiCaprio is in the main role. Everyone always criticizes DiCaprio's performance in almost every movie that he makes. Well, I absolutely adore him. 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', 'Basketball Diaries', 'Titanic' and yes, 'The Beach' all show him acting out his best. In my opinion, DiCaprio is one of the most talented actors around. Argue with me but I really think he does his best in almost every role. Once again, HE didn't let me down, but this movie sure did.
The first part (not the entire first half) was decent and it looked like 'The Beach' could make a name for itself. The plot started to carry on with little meaning and that's where I got bored with it. Although the beginning narration started off slow, it also started out with nice scenery and a good script trying to break through. Three characters hit the island and then the film started to pick up. We skip ahead to where Richard starts eating bugs, he turns into a video game character and starts hissing like a cat. Okay, that's enough. 'The Beach' was kind of lost from then on. We skip ahead some more to the ending, and like the beginning, it too was slow. In fact, it was a terrible ending. The script itself could have been good, I'm not saying great, but good for the most part. It went in one direction while what the characters were doing and saying went into another. It seemed as if the whole thing started to lose meaning at one point or another.

The acting was very good. I already gave my opinion on DiCaprio's half, so let me talk about the rest of the cast. Virginie Ledoyen who plays Françoise, was just alright. Her character wasn't really given a lot of attention to but what she was given, she handled well. I really liked the man who played Françoise's boyfriend, Étienne I think. He too didn't contribute a whole lot to the plot but I thought that he was a good actor. I did not like how his character just disappeared about half way through the film. Why did they do that? Keep him around. I won't comment too much on Tilda Swinton (Sal) except to say that she is one of the most annoying actresses I have ever seen. Little tip: 're-cast.' Everyone else did good.
One of the worst things about this film was the narration. Richard telling the story through his eyes started to get boring. The part where he's out in the woods, keeping an eye on those four travelers is when it hit me the most. For ten or so minutes, he does nothing but narrate and we really don't see too much action. Another thing that seemed to irritate me was those darn flashbacks to Daffy in his room. There he is firing away at the tourists with Richard screaming beside him. Oh, that was one of the terrible parts.

This movie had beautiful scenery, a decent script (that got screwed up some how) and so-so special effects. Again, Leonardo DiCaprio isn't what made 'The Beach' bad, the writing was.