Paradise lost

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 2000)

Calm yourselves girls.
Despite the presence of Titanic's Leo DiCaprio, The Beach is not other tale of doomed romance while computer generated actors wander around an ill-fated liner.
Instead, it's a fascinating if somewhat flawed adaptation of the cult Alex Garland novel.
Leo is Richard (a Brit in the book but an American here which seems to make sound commercial sense). He's a traveller who takes off for Thailand in search of something a little extra, the sort of experience you don't find on package holidays.
What he does find is a raving Scotsman called Daffy who tells him of a secluded island paradise with perfect waters and gorgeous sand. The next morning he is found dead having slashed his wrists. But Daffy's demise has not gone without purpose in this heady, intoxicating tale. Before he topped himself, the raving Scot left a map of how to get to the eponymous paradise on Leo's door.
So before you can say Wish you were here, Leo and a couple of neighbouring lovers (Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet) have taken off on a 500 mile journey in search of paradise.
Naturally they find the beach and after overcoming many obstacles such as surviving a death defying swim to the island, a perilous jump into a lagoon and a field full of cliched dope farmers with rifles, our trio of gorgeous young things happens across the idyllic utopia run by Sal (Tilda Swinton).
She runs this community with a mixture of admirable precision and head girl bossiness. The deal is that those who live there have a taste of paradise and can play cricket, swim in the crystal waters and enjoy all that it has to offer as long as they don't tell anyone about the location.
Alas, poor old Dicky decided to leave a copy of the map with a bunch of dope head travellers who naturally decide to see for themselves.
Inevitably, they are gunned down by the hackneyed dope farmers and it soon becomes apparent that this paradise is guarded with an iron fist.
It's during the third act that John Hodge's screenplay goes off the rails and although it was inevitable that paradise would turn out to be a rather sour experience, the means with which Richard descends into an Apocalypse Now like madness and then finds things resolved with a Deer Hunter style game of Russian roulette smacks of been there, done that bought the Tee Shirt.
There's also an embarrassing moment in which our hero with well defined thumbs - he likes to play video games - goes native in the jungle and Danny Boyle delivers a cringe-making scene of a computerised Leo running around like some sort of Lara Croft character.
A pity that he would resort to such obvious analogies as Danny Boyle is one of the brightest hopes for British cinema - Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary have to be three of the finest home grown offerings of the last six years.
On the production side, the soundtrack is fine and All Saints' contribution, Pure Shores, is a likeable love theme. Darius Khondji, the genius who lit Se7en and Alien Resurrection, opts for his usual grainy style, but there's little sign of the inky blacks which made AR such a glorious cinematic experience.
By the finale, you won't feel short changed and there is a happy ending of sorts so the danger which went before makes this a sort of burger and fries movie where any real danger is severely compromised by a very black and white solution.
However, it's very easy on the eyes, Leo gives a good performance and the ensemble cast brings very little baggage to the production so much needed credibility is maintained for as long as possible before this paradise is lost for good in a mix of happy endings and all too comfy resolution.