"The Beach"

Starring: Guillaume Canet, Leonardo DiCaprio,
Robert Carlyle, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen

120 minutes
Rated R
Released 1999
Warnings: Language, adult situations, violence, drug use

[JULY 27, 2000]  The Dream: the most perfect beach in the whole world, complete with the softest white sand, tall coconut trees, a high-tide blue lagoon, and picturesque mountains in the background – all perfectly protected and secluded from the rest of the world.

On a solitary trip to Thailand, Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) decides that most travelers to the most adventurous places in the world arrive and turn on the television, eat McDonald’s, and do all the other things that they would normally do at home, rather than experience the true adventure that awaits them. And so he challenges himself to take an adventure that most would avoid. Seeking just such an adventure, he is unfulfilled by drinking snake blood or indulging in the other lurid challenges of urban Thailand.

That night, alone in the hostel, he is awakened by an insane stranger calling himself Daffy Duck (Robert Carlyle). Daffy discloses that he has recently returned to the city from a place of perfection, and asks Richard if perfection and adventure are his goals. Having an insane conversation together, suddenly Daffy disappears, only to turn up dead the next morning with his wrists slit. Richard is his apparent beneficiary: A map to a secret island is tacked to the door of Richard’s room, with Daffy’s trademark signature on the back.

 

 

Seeking someone to share in his new dream, Richard interests the French couple in the next hostel room to accompany him on this newfound adventure to discover and land on this island and find this most perfect beach. And so, three young travelers embark across country and across the sea to reach their secret destination. But not before Richard shares a copy of the map with two male travelers whom he meets along the way.

Their discoveries along the way are only an introduction to the adventures they become part of when at last they arrive at their destination. It looks perfect, it smells perfect, but can the perfect place remain perfect if we take ourselves along for the trip?

 

 

"The Beach" is nearly the perfect adventure film. It employs a modern plot and I like that. Most adventure films depict times past when the world was a much bigger, uncharted place, and there were many places left which were largely uncontaminated by civilization. Since I live in the present, I can better relate to a movie which speaks of an unspoiled adventure which I can take even today.

 

(To top of second column)

 

"The Beach" is nearly the perfect drama film. The threats to life, property, way of life and freedom are very real in this movie. Each person who makes the trip is totally at risk. In the most perfect place on earth, there are fewer protections and greater threats. In this modern, upside-down "Lord of the Flies" story, the perfect culture attempts to protect their perfect way of life at the cost of the individual. This tension is the real story.

"The Beach" is a film about youth culture and escapism, with a heavy emphasis on smoking marijuana as a way of life. I had a hard time relating to the desire to go to a place where drugs are commonplace and getting high is a daily event. As for its position on drug use, this film does not seem to condone or convict, but remains neutral to this whole lifestyle.

My significant other, Walter, agrees that the acting in this movie was convincing and above average. The characters particularly captured and convinced us as we viewed this film. But Walter and I disagree concerning the cinematography: I say that it captured the beauty, but failed to convey the angst. Smidge said that she didn’t really like the movie (although she adores Leonardo). For Leonardo, this movie seems like a cross between his "Gilbert Grape" character, his character in "Titanic" and his character in "Return to Blue Lagoon."

There seems to be a great deal of chaos in the plot of this story. It fails, in the end, to convey the peace and serenity of the most beautiful place on earth (on purpose). It also fails to bring you in close to the characters. There is a distant, existential quality to the film, which is perhaps its only flaw.

If watching a film a second time is a measure of the quality of its craft, then this is a film to rent. Walter and I will probably watch this one again when it finally makes its way to the $1.00 rack (about a year or so from now, at least).

I enjoyed it, recommend it with some small reservations, and give it 3½ stars out of 5.

 

 

[midge]

 

E-mail your comments to me at midge@lincolndailynews.com

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