Review of The Beach (2000) by Anna P — 31 Jan 2011

What a horribly shallow waste of a perfectly good / profound piece of modern literature. Recently read the book, and watched the movie for the first time since probably middle school promptly afterwards.

I remember not liking it then that much, and after realizing what liberties they took with the source material, I hate it even more. What is a story about group mentality in finding ones own personal paradise and the intricate mindset of traveling, turned into an opportunity to cash in on some post-Titanic Leo bucks.

Switching Richard from a Brit to an American, right of the bat loses a lot of the source materials relevance and muster, let alone the various huge plot points they change to solely to give Leo the majority of the screen time (namely screwing Sal and Francoise) and drown out the rich and colorful cast of characters on the Beach itself.

Literary differences aside, it's a disjointed dull castrophy of ideas the screen writer couldn't quite pin down. Why they didn't just let Alex Garland write the script, I haven't a clue, as he later became a frequent Boyle collaborator.

In my opinion, Danny Boyle's only skidmark. Really hoping they remake this one at some point because it is a great story to tell.