(USA 2000, dir. Danny Boyle) Cast: Richard - Leonardo DiCaprio, Francoise - Virginie Ledoyen, Sal - Tilda Swinton, Daffy - Robert Carlyle.
I am the product of English parents whose parents were themselves English. Does this make me "too English?". I ask because, in a recent interview, director Danny Boyle described the Alex Garland novel 'The Beach' as "too English". People or things that come from England often are fairly English and I think Boyle really would do well to accept that. Some might see his comments as a defensive reaction brought on by the casting of an American, DiCaprio, in the role of Richard, originally written as an Englishman. "I'm not whoring to Hollywood" he could be saying, "I really wanted to ditch my friend Ewan MacGregor in favour of that bloke from TITANIC." I like to think not, because let's face it, we know that he IS whoring to Hollywood with THE BEACH.
Unlike my colleague, Alex Finch, I have not read the original novel so have no idea how loyal or otherwise THE BEACH is to its source material. Furthermore, I actually like Leonardo DiCaprio and am quite prepared to forgive him for agreeing to appear in one of James Cameron's dodgy pseudo-epics. My concerns are purely cinematic. Is THE BEACH any good?
The short answer is yes. It's a perfectly reasonable way to spend a couple of hours. The film is well performed, especially by Carlyle and Swinton, and it's also generally well directed, Boyle obviously being far more eloquent with the camera than he is with his big stupid mouth. Leonardo puts in the requisite "girly shots" (i.e. smirking whilst wearing only a towel), but also does some proper acting. The setting is wonderful, although possibly not worth tearing up a Thai national park for, and some of the sequences are fairly exciting. The scene where the three hitch-hikers (Leonardo, and a French couple, the female half of which he has his beady eye on) have to swim a vast distance to get to their island paradise is magnificent, as is the understated way in which a fatal shark attack is handled. Yes, there is a lot of good stuff in THE BEACH.
However, there is a down side. There's just not enough to it. The idea of a small community on a tropical island is not exactly new, and anyone who remembers LORD OF THE FLIES is not going to be greatly surprised when - shock - it all goes wrong. The ending itself is flat as a pancake, but the beginning and middle make up for that. Danny Boyle need not worry that his reputation is not going to plummet as a result of this film. True, THE BEACH is nowhere near as good as TRAINSPOTTING, and yet it is superior to SHALLOW GRAVE and A LFE LESS ORDINARY, which were, come to think of it, crap.
Chris Denton
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