Paradise lost

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2008)

No matter what you think of it, Danny Boyle's "The Beach" deserves credit for not being forgotten, for still provoking discussion so many years after its release. I've never met anyone who has seen it who didn't have a clearly-formed opinion on it, nor anyone who had seen it but forgotten it. It has its defenders, but its reputation is still quite bad, and it's probably regarded as a turkey more often than it is defended as a misunderstood great.
Truth is, it's neither a complete disaster (although I haven't read the supposedly great book it's based on, which might affect my opinion) nor a great or even particularly good film. It's about half a watchable movie, mostly thanks to the first hour or so, which sets up the events of the final hour, and where DiCaprio is doing just fine with his role. The film starts entering turkey mode about an hour in, and reaches a climax of absurdity when DiCaprio, now morphed into Tarzan, is put in a stylized video game sequence. Come on Danny, we know you're better than that.
I actually like DiCaprio as an actor, but I'm not sure what the hell he's doing in about half of this movie, though he's hardly completely to blame, considering the half-baked, bizarre, screwed up freak of a script here. It seems like a good enough idea on paper: adapt cult novel using the same team that made "Trainspotting", also adapted from a cult novel, such a big hit (same producer, screenwriter, and director). Perhaps "The Beach" just shouldn't have been adapted, because the 'philosophy' here, and any supposed 'depth' ends up being absolutely ludicrous, and much of the latter half of the film is just plain bad. Still, I've seen too many truly bad films, ones where gouging my eyes out became an option half-way through, to hate this film. The first half is too watchable and it just looks too good to really be the complete disaster many say it is. It's a missed opportunity, but visually gorgeous and probably worth a curiosity viewing.