The Beach
Year: 2000
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen & Tilda Swinton
Runtime: 119 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/12/22
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen & Tilda Swinton
Runtime: 119 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/12/22
When I think of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland I think of a match made in heaven. In the 2000’s, Boyle and Garland collaborated on a number of films as director and writer respectively to create some really amazing films. But the first time their paths crossed would result in something a lot more underwhelming.
Based on Garland’s 1996 book of the same name, The Beach became one of the strangest films to come out of the year 2000, because it had everything it needed to become a great film but yet somehow managed to come away with a lukewarm box office total and less than gracious reviews. So, what went wrong with The Beach? How did a film that should have been a shoe in for the biggest awards ceremonies end up instead being nominated at the Razzie’s?
Whilst on holiday in Thailand, a young American thrill seeker Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets Daffy (Robert Carlyle), a man who claims he has been living with an isolated beach community for a number of years. Upon receiving a map from Daffy which marks the location of the beach, Richard along with two other guests at his hotel, Francoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and her boyfriend Etienne (Guillaume Canet), embark on a journey to discover said community.
Once there they find that life truly is a paradise, but no paradise comes without a cost which the community’s leader Sal (Tilda Swinton) is eager to keep quiet.
Based on Garland’s 1996 book of the same name, The Beach became one of the strangest films to come out of the year 2000, because it had everything it needed to become a great film but yet somehow managed to come away with a lukewarm box office total and less than gracious reviews. So, what went wrong with The Beach? How did a film that should have been a shoe in for the biggest awards ceremonies end up instead being nominated at the Razzie’s?
Whilst on holiday in Thailand, a young American thrill seeker Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets Daffy (Robert Carlyle), a man who claims he has been living with an isolated beach community for a number of years. Upon receiving a map from Daffy which marks the location of the beach, Richard along with two other guests at his hotel, Francoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and her boyfriend Etienne (Guillaume Canet), embark on a journey to discover said community.
Once there they find that life truly is a paradise, but no paradise comes without a cost which the community’s leader Sal (Tilda Swinton) is eager to keep quiet.
The thing is that The Beach isn’t entirely bad, but it’s just very mediocre and coming from the talent of Danny Boyle that’s kind of a big problem. Despite the fact that Alex Garland wrote the book, he didn’t actually work on the film, and whilst I haven’t read the book, I would expect that this is where the majority of the problems stem from.
I felt that the Beach lacked a lot of purpose, it never felt like it was going anywhere or that it meant anything. It was just about a bunch of young hippies that wanted to play on the beach and smoke weed all day. This is likely because all of the characters felt extremely shallow and lacking in any kind of drive. Perhaps that’s the allegory of the entire film, that the youth of the new millennium just lacked the drive to seek purpose, but somehow, I don’t think The Beach is quite that intelligent.
It’s made all the worse when nobody speaks normally, everyone seems to burst out into the most intricately elegant prose at any given opportunity, and whilst that’s fine for Richard’s inner monologue, it’s kind of weird to see people just having conversations like that. There’s a reason why DiCaprio was nominated for worst actor at the Razzie’s, he chews on the scenery so hard that it’s like watching a GCSE drama student perform a play to the class whilst imagining that they’re on the West End. It’s so over the top it’s laughable, and it’s a rather nasty stain to have on Leo’s otherwise impressive career.
I did however like the way that The Beach really drives home how perfection doesn’t really exist, and the seemingly tranquil life that the community live is actually only maintained because Sal is prepared to make some pretty horrendous sacrifices. But then this also falls flat because Sal isn’t made out to be as much of a villain as she really is. In the film she just has a bit of a thing for Leo and will do whatever it takes to keep the community peaceful. When in reality it should have been much more of a case that Sal’s basically keeping everyone there against their will so that she can continue to rule over them like some kind of tyrant. The ending doesn’t make a lot of sense either as the community are horrified to discover that Sal will, without hesitation, kill someone in order to keep people in the community, but not half an hour has passed since the community collectively put a gravely wounded man out in the forest to die from his injuries rather than go through the effort of helping him simply because he was making a lot of noise.
I can’t really comment on how good of an adaptation this film is of Garland’s book because I haven't read it, but I feel like Boyle really missed the point of the whole thing. I mean Garland’s book won a lot of awards and was heralded as one of the best books of 1996, and yet the film feels confused about what it wants to be.
I felt that the Beach lacked a lot of purpose, it never felt like it was going anywhere or that it meant anything. It was just about a bunch of young hippies that wanted to play on the beach and smoke weed all day. This is likely because all of the characters felt extremely shallow and lacking in any kind of drive. Perhaps that’s the allegory of the entire film, that the youth of the new millennium just lacked the drive to seek purpose, but somehow, I don’t think The Beach is quite that intelligent.
It’s made all the worse when nobody speaks normally, everyone seems to burst out into the most intricately elegant prose at any given opportunity, and whilst that’s fine for Richard’s inner monologue, it’s kind of weird to see people just having conversations like that. There’s a reason why DiCaprio was nominated for worst actor at the Razzie’s, he chews on the scenery so hard that it’s like watching a GCSE drama student perform a play to the class whilst imagining that they’re on the West End. It’s so over the top it’s laughable, and it’s a rather nasty stain to have on Leo’s otherwise impressive career.
I did however like the way that The Beach really drives home how perfection doesn’t really exist, and the seemingly tranquil life that the community live is actually only maintained because Sal is prepared to make some pretty horrendous sacrifices. But then this also falls flat because Sal isn’t made out to be as much of a villain as she really is. In the film she just has a bit of a thing for Leo and will do whatever it takes to keep the community peaceful. When in reality it should have been much more of a case that Sal’s basically keeping everyone there against their will so that she can continue to rule over them like some kind of tyrant. The ending doesn’t make a lot of sense either as the community are horrified to discover that Sal will, without hesitation, kill someone in order to keep people in the community, but not half an hour has passed since the community collectively put a gravely wounded man out in the forest to die from his injuries rather than go through the effort of helping him simply because he was making a lot of noise.
I can’t really comment on how good of an adaptation this film is of Garland’s book because I haven't read it, but I feel like Boyle really missed the point of the whole thing. I mean Garland’s book won a lot of awards and was heralded as one of the best books of 1996, and yet the film feels confused about what it wants to be.
I think I could get past all of the above to some degree if the film had been well made though. Whilst it does look good for the most part with some gorgeous environmental shots, it’s the sound that’s the final nail in the coffin for The Beach. A lot of people forget just how important sound is to a film, everyone’s too busy looking at what they can see that they forget to listen to what they’re hearing. When a film has good audio, you’ll probably even forget to think about it, because it just makes sense. But The Beach is an example of how a bad soundtrack can ruin an entire film.
For some unknown reason The Beach’s soundtrack is comprised mostly of licensed pop songs rather than an original score. Firstly, this doesn’t make a lot of sense within the context of the story because the beach community consists entirely of people that want to escape from the overstimulated, consumer driven culture that the rest of the world thrives on. So why are all the songs some of the biggest pop songs of the turn of the millennia? This is exactly the kind of music they would have wanted to escape from! The straw that broke the camels back for me was using Oasis’ ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ for the moment that Richard first sees the eponymous beach. Bittersweet Symphony is a sad song, the clue is in the title, it’s about being sad that the good times are over. So why does this play at the moment in the film where Richard has finally found everything he has been searching for?
I could understand this song being used in the closing scene of the film where Richard is seen looking at a group picture of everyone at the beach community and remembering the good times, but it’s not used there, it’s used at the moment where he is arguably at his happiest!
The Beach often feels at odds with itself over its most basic elements. Very little about the film feels cohesive, and when that’s tied together with performances that are hamming it up as much as this it’s an experience I’d sooner not go through again. I have been overwhelmingly negative in this review but in all honesty, you could do worse than The Beach, I’m just not sure why you’d watch for anything other than curiosity’s sake.
Whilst I may love both Boyle and Garland, this is certainly a black mark against the director, and it hasn’t left me wanting to check the book out either. Thankfully they both went on to do better things both together and apart.
For some unknown reason The Beach’s soundtrack is comprised mostly of licensed pop songs rather than an original score. Firstly, this doesn’t make a lot of sense within the context of the story because the beach community consists entirely of people that want to escape from the overstimulated, consumer driven culture that the rest of the world thrives on. So why are all the songs some of the biggest pop songs of the turn of the millennia? This is exactly the kind of music they would have wanted to escape from! The straw that broke the camels back for me was using Oasis’ ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ for the moment that Richard first sees the eponymous beach. Bittersweet Symphony is a sad song, the clue is in the title, it’s about being sad that the good times are over. So why does this play at the moment in the film where Richard has finally found everything he has been searching for?
I could understand this song being used in the closing scene of the film where Richard is seen looking at a group picture of everyone at the beach community and remembering the good times, but it’s not used there, it’s used at the moment where he is arguably at his happiest!
The Beach often feels at odds with itself over its most basic elements. Very little about the film feels cohesive, and when that’s tied together with performances that are hamming it up as much as this it’s an experience I’d sooner not go through again. I have been overwhelmingly negative in this review but in all honesty, you could do worse than The Beach, I’m just not sure why you’d watch for anything other than curiosity’s sake.
Whilst I may love both Boyle and Garland, this is certainly a black mark against the director, and it hasn’t left me wanting to check the book out either. Thankfully they both went on to do better things both together and apart.