Hodge`s “The Beach”
Friday, February 22nd, 2008 | Film Reviews
“The Beach” is a screenplay based on a novel by Alex Garland. The novel of almost 500 pages creates a tension and adventurous atmosphere, although it almost gets lost in the middle of the story. The main characters are introduced to the reader one after another and we are able to get into the action step by step.
The film destroys this mysterious atmosphere from the beginning on by music, which doesn´t fit into the action and the rapid development of the story.
Many key-scenes and important characters are simply left out and like many
It doesn´t help, that a star-actor like Leonardo di Caprio is trying hard to play the shy, introverted and paranoid Richard. Leonardo´s star image and his popularity overshadow his possibilities as an actor. It´s also funny that some characters who are american in the book, have a strong British accent in the film.
Tensions inside the wanna-be-perfect community are not clearly shown in the film while it´s actually very important for the climax at the end. The well-kept secrecy of the beach has been lost in the moment, when Richard got the map of the hidden beach from a dead “duck” (played by Robert Carlyle).
The film-script is boring and consists of some unconnected scenes which don´t create a certain atmosphere. It´s a pity, that some very good actors wasted their time to cover the film-makers´ faults .
As already expected, even this final scenes are not appropriate to the novel. A Techno-party, then malicious dope guards and finaly rafting home. A disappointing end.
The only plus point is the scenery which keeps a credible image of a lonely island.
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