Bilge

Rating: Null/10 (5 March 2000)

What unutterable tosh. The relationship to the book doesn't matter - though that was an undoubted page-turner, it was really just "Lord Of The Flies" meets "Animal Farm" and didn't deserve all its garlands - it's complete rubbish in its own right.
Di Caprio staked a bold claim to be the worst actor of his generation in "Titanic". Here he delivers on that claim. As stated before, the two lead women are good but can't rescue the film from the laughable performances of the rest of the cast.
The Keaty character is particularly cringeworthy. Far from being the sympathetic friend, in the pursuit of trendiness they've tried to turn him into a witless "know wha'I mean" street boy. It don't work, not least because you need to be really stupid to deliver this line with any conviction; you have to believe that the rest of us really might not understand your banalities. From the first delivery of this unintentionally hilarious line, it was downhill all the way.
The "computer game" sequence makes no sense at all if you haven't read the book, as the film doesn't develop these aspects of the character at all.
Don't waste your time with this.