Underdeveloped but Fun

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2019)

I have not read the book. So forget that aspect.
Maybe the reason for not sharing characters' back stories is a way to say that you can be anyone on a vacation, or everyone starts fresh on a deserted island.
But I personally prefer to hear about the lives of all key characters in a movie like this. Just have them explain in a conversation with each other. Then I would care more about them. But they didn't do this.
I like to reminisce about being young and about adventures I had or wished I had. So I enjoyed living vicariously through our main character. Thailand is one of those places where you are likely to meet Europeans seeking adventure or release, because many live in cold, uptight societies. So I believed the fact that most of the beach people were from Europe.
It is totally true that no matter where you travel, you bring yourself and your nature with you. There are some good lines in this film about that. Also that any grouping of people will include "Alphas," "Betas," and assorted misfits. At every job I've ever had, ever group trip I've ever taken, every school I've ever attended, there were always all those types, and they didn't get along.

Something I read into the plot that we are not told, is that the leader woman may come from money. Maybe they don't just exist on money from selling pot. She probably has a trust fund. That may not be in the book. But it would make sense.
I liked DiCaprio here, because he had that fresh, youthful loser guy vibe down perfectly. A guy who had nothing going for him, but was ready and eager to reinvent himself. He looked genuinely excited to be alive and experience this adventure, until it went bad.

I totally believed the young French couple. They were perfectly cast. As were the beach dwellers. I also liked the device of using physical injury or illness as the threat to paradise.
As for depth, we needed to hear more conversation about the nature of life. There is a good line in the final narration about what it means to find paradise. But I would have liked to hear some debates about morality. At least there was one somewhat Christian guy and one Catholic who shows some integrity.

They should have cut the entire sequence of animation. It did not fit. It was like a separate movie. I like the idea of our character starting to lose it, and witnessing what he did, but minus the technical hijinks.

Meanwhile the ending was fine for me. It made sense, and I loved the touch of having him reflect on it all at a cafÃ©.