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This was the post-Titanic flick that Leonardo almost drowned for-- during its making when he was swept overboard for an hour in the Sea of Siam. He could have been, like James Dean, immortalized thereby, but it would have been a shame, nevertheless, because The Beach is not to die for. In fact local newspapers in the heartland are giving it—at best—a star and a half. This reviewer awards it a minus- half-star. The story-line, you see, isn't very inspiring. It's a take off, of sorts, on The Lord of the Flies, a cynical view of humankind played out in fear and violence on Paradise Island. Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes in search of what he calls "the search for experience" the type, I'd imagine, that a cherub with his doughboy face could easily use to give himself some better-defined characteristics.
In Bangkok, Richard runs into a French couple, Etienne (Guillaume Canet) and Francoise (Virginie Ledoyen) with whom he travels to his hoped-for paradise. They get their map from Daffy (Robert Carlyle) who's had too many drugs and too much sun. Daffy, before slitting his wrists, encourages our hero to go to The Beach where, he is told, every thing is hunky-dory. NOT. To get to The Beach, our protagonists are compelled to swim across an open stretch of sea, crawl past armed guards and jump 120 feet from the top of a waterfall. But then they arrive at a small community of hippie-style pot-smoking adventurers. It is so lovely in these surroundings that at first they feel no desire to return home. Decent weed?
"The movie is occasionally pretty, has a couple of cute and appealing special-effects moments, but all in all it stumbles around between overwrought and half-baked, carrying a glass filled with something too sweet which it spills on everyone. Not content with stumbling, this film falls on several occasions, not to rise again. The cast of supporting characters fails to provide any support, and DiCaprio hardly seems to want support anyway. These supporters are, one and all, all background people, even the ones who don't stay in the background. Their blood's too red. The music is too loud. The water is too blue."
Nevertheless, Leonardo got twenty million to star in this shark-infested pudding. Swimming through the goo with a healthy sloshing of histrionics and a prescribed number of boyishly appealing grins, Lennie has by now probably collected his millions, says my Badpuppy compatriot, and may already be heading for his Swiss bank, where he's got a date with his money.
Though he's growing older, in The Beach there still appears to be no hair growth on his chest. Some suggest he's tweezed those few blonde tufts around his nipples. If you like his physical type—pretty but bland— you'll still thrill to the sight of him, however. But don't look for much in the way of dialogue or drama. Those in search of top-notch acting, should go see something else. |
Leonardo DiCaparipo stars as a young man on the run in The Beach 
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