6/10.

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2004)

[NOTE: This review contains SPOILERS, proceed at your own risk.]
I didn't like "The Beach" or love it.
I don't know whether I liked DiCaprio's performance or not -- I was annoyed by his character, though, that's for sure. Tilda Swinton was pretty good in the role of Sal. Virginie Ledoyen, when the movie actually focused on her, was very good; however, she was rarely there, and just mainly served as The Love Interest, and nothing else. The movie could have been a lot better if it focused on the love triangle between her, DiCaprio and Canet's characters. The triangle was mostly useless, as Canet just let go of Ledoyen like *that* -- everything just seemed to go on without even acknowledging that Ledoyen had cheated on her boyfriend. Essentially no emotions are shown. IMHO, the love triangle could have just been cut out of the movie, as it was useless.
Up until Ledoyen cheats on Canet, I really liked this movie. The very beginning, I thought, was very nicely done, and I liked the character of Daffy. The scenery, too, was absolutely stunning.
Throughout the movie, I felt that it focused so much on fleshing out Richard's character  which it didn't do a very good job of  and mainly just focusing on *him* that it left out everything else in the movie that would have made it much better.
Overall, this film had potential, and if you just tweaked it a bit it could have been great. If you're ever in the mood for an all right film on a boring, rainy day, this is for you.
OVERALL: 6/10