T.V.
And Films
Film Reviews
The Beach
Rating: 15
Running Time: 118mins.
Director Danny Boyle
Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Tilda Swinton,
Robert Carlyle
Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an innocent backpacker on the backpackers'
trail, searching for the secret of whatever - happiness? - in the tourist
pit stops of South East Asia. He understands the irony of "traveling
10,000 miles to watch TV and seek out the comforts of home." He may not
know why he's doing it, but knows why he isn't. Following the crowd, doing
the drugs, photographing the sights, playing an American abroad is not
why he came to Bangkok. He came because he had the time and the money
and it was there that he met Daffy (Robert Carlyle), a crazy Scot, in a
down market doss house, who gave him a map and told him about the beach.
This is Thailand, where natural beauty literally grows on trees. Before
Daffy puts a knife to his anguish, he enthuses a baffled Richard about the
paradise he has left. "It's a beach resort for people who don't like beach
resorts." Difficult to find, almost impossible to get to, jealously guarded,
the place makes Eden look suburban.
The beach is pristine, enclosed by towering cliffs, on a tiny island off
the coast of another tiny island. Gun-toting natives, who look like
Mexicans from B-picture Westerns, live at one end, guarding fields of
marijuana, and a multicultural commune, run by an English games mistress
(Tilda Swinton), inhabit the other.
DiCaprio lives and breathes Richard, always one step away from realizing
what the hell is going on. This is a film about possession. If you inherit
paradise, would you share it with the world? Would you lend your girl to
that skinny Yank who can't take a joke? If a man is dying for want of
medicine, would you trust him to keep a secret?
Beauty stops being an issue. "I tried to remember the person
I used to be," Richard says, after losing his innocence. In the end, only
one thing matters. Survival.
Rating: 3 Stars
Simon Owen
