The Beach

We are lucky that the photography depicts some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth as the rest of this adaptation of Alex Garland's book is positively stodgy. Talking of beautiful things, Leonardo DiCaprio still has something of his "Romeo & Juliet" (1996) boyishness to him as he arrives in Thailand. After an encounter with an enigmatic Scotsman (Robert Carlyle) who doesn't last for long, he finds himself in possession of a map that sets himself and a couple of travelling companions on a quest to find to a beautiful paradise island that is well off the beaten track. After a few tricky experiences that remind them all that it's called a wilderness for a reason, they arrive to find that "Sal" (Tilda Swinton) has already set up camp and with what amounts to a naturist commune has strict rules for those who want to remain there. Initially this idyll works for all, but a trip to town for supplies redefines the relationship between "Richard" and his host, and his own stupidity leaves a path for others to follow. With tragedy and bloodshed now ensuing, the Elysian concept of their perfect existence is quickly compromised by both nature and the angry locals. To be honest, it's a pretty thin story at the best of times and it really does rely heavily on the pristine aesthetics to carry it for a great deal of it's almost two hour crawl time. Swinton is always a master at the slightly aloof, less is more, kind of characterisations and Leo himself has the camera enthralled. As as piece of storytelling, though, it's really nothing special beyond a wordy and ponderous exercise in sending a salutary message that the ever expansive march of tourism ought to learn to keep of the grass and leave nature in it's many different guises to live in peace.

I have to go all in on this, I loved the book, and I do love the movie but... OK, it's a bias 100% rating. This wasn't a good film for Leo, not because he did a bad job but because they needed a different kind of actor. It should have been Ewan. And, honestly, it could have used to be a little more like the novel, but Danny does a great job of adapting hard to adapt books, I mean look at Trainspotting, that turned out to be a great flick and if you read the novel you'd wonder where to even start to adapt it. And the video game scene needed to go, props for creativity, but it just didn't work. So, maybe 100% was a bit too high, but despite all of that it is a really fun movie, has a great soundtrack, had some great acting.