Terrible disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (4 March 2001)

"The Beach" plays like a thousand and one vignettes from alternate, better versions of itself. Maybe Boyle meant something by the use of fragmented tone and plot, but the end result comes across as a messy and uninspired retread of Lord of the Flies and Apocalypse Now.
The technical credits are great and the performances are interesting, but neither the script nor the direction is able to convey any kind of significant tension, meaning, or tone. Individual sequences work (Robert Carlyle's bit, when the stoners are in the grass, Leo's shark monologue), but there's far too much silliness and incoherence in the air for anything to properly gel. I haven't read the book on which this is based, to be sure, but I can hardly imagine given the reviews I've read of it that it was anywhere near as overly sympathetic to Leo's character as this film is. And the ending - say what? Email my heart, indeed. I still think Boyle's got a lot of talent. Trainspotting rocked and A Life Less Ordinary was fun. This movie has my faith shaken, however. There are some stabs at good filmmaking here, but overall the direction seems confused and unwilling to give insight on its material. The incompetence seems preternaturally high for a big studio project with a talented director, writer, and cast - were there studio problems with this release? For Boyle's sake, I hope so. This is a true bomb.