Warning: Plot twists and the ending to The Beach are given away in this review.
One of the first articles I ever wrote for gc(uk) was ‘The Beach – And why chances are it’ll turn out badly.’ After posting a message on a Beach fansite it got a fair bit of attention, mainly negative, from people looking forward to the movie. But after seeing The Beach, I found, sadly, that most of my fears about the movie had been confirmed. Danny Boyle’s film has very little in common with Alex Garland’s novel, bar the basic plotline and character names.
And it’s a mess. I know that you have to expect certain changes when a novel is translated to the big screen, that certain characters will be reduced, or certain scenes missed out completely, but Boyle’s film does much more than this. It sets out to rewrite the last half of the novel, changing the ending completely, and, ultimately, is very unsatisfying.
So what exactly do I think is wrong with The Beach? Well, the movie isn’t a complete disaster. Indeed the first half is fine. Thailand is filmed in a mixture of blues and grays which succeeds in making it seem modern and unnatural at the same time. And the trip Richard, Francoise and Etienne make to the Beach is fairly accurate too. Indeed, it’s not until we meet the other residents of the Beach that the first alarm bells began to ring. Bar Sal and Keaty, they’re barely introduced. Sure, a few characters get a few lines, but that’s about it. And it’s here that the movie starts heading downhill. Fast.
As noted in Chris Denton’s review of the Beach, Danny Boyle has stated that ‘Richard was too English.’ And that he wished to change this. I was initially worried that the changes they were to make to the novel would remove many of it’s finer points, and, sadly, it seems that I was proved right. But I’m not blaming Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. Infact I was pleasantly surprised by his performance in the film. He’s certainly done the most with the material he’s been given. He gives a relaxed, confidant performance as an American traveller who doesn’t seem to care about anyone apart from himself, and does look suitably insane at various points in the latter part of the film. However, by changing the character so much, Hodge and Boyle have ruined the film. And it’s a mistake they just seem to like making, as Renton’s character in their adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting suffered a similar fate.
For it seems that by making Richard American, all of his good qualities have been removed. His morality is extremely dubious, he doesn’t seem to care about anyone, really, and his obsession with Francoise, which is the novel’s backbone, is skimpily treated with and doesn’t really make any sense. Infact this is a big problem with the second half of the novel. It’s all too episodic, events happen without any serious repercussions, and the ending is a sad let down. But worst of all, Richard’s transformation from friendly traveller to psychopath is utterly unbelievable. One minute he’s enjoying himself just fine, shagging around like there’s no tomorrow, the next he’s running through the forest imagining that he’s in a video game, and then, all of a sudden, he’s having a few nasty nightmares, digging spike filled holes in the forest and acting rather psychotically. But as soon he witnesses the deaths of four other travellers he instantly regains his sanity and sets about trying to escape from the Island.
Simply put, sadly it’s not very convincing. As fans of the novel may have noted, DiCaprio’s Richard bares very few similarities with Garland’s. In the novel Richard’s character is far more developed, and his obsession with Vietnam movies, and Francoise, plus his general mental state, is central to the changes he goes through, central to the themes and ideas that Garland is suggesting in the novel. By ignoring these crucial factors, the film suffers, and ultimately, seems pointless.
I really wanted to enjoy The Beach. But it’s talented cast are sadly under used, and too much emphasis is placed on the central character who fails to involve. This, and the fact that the plot has been simplified beyond belief ruined the film for me. Still, on the plus side, it does look very pretty. Hmmm. But then so do postcards.
Alex Finch.
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