Love Triangles, secret marijuana islands and psychosis oh My!

The Beach.



Recent Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle takes an interesting twist on the American vacation in The Beach.



Employing the work of Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead Richard is a stroke of genius and completely saves this movie from coming off as too campy. DiCaprio's expertise in being scrumptious yet spectacularly talented. He has the enigmatic quality to draw you into watching a movie, such as this where the plot-line description alone might not be enough to make you watch, and then once you commit he embodies the character in a way not seen by any other young male in Hollywood in recentmemory. In addition in this film there was the added bonus of his narration where his smooth, confident voice really Without the DiCaprio's anchor this movie would have sunk early on with no hope of recovery as it went to DVD or straight to television.



This film was an interesting look at the idea of paradise especially according to those who travel to find it. Psychologically the issues examined throughout the film are all interesting and subtly examined. That being said at times they are almost too subtle where the sharp film direction, beautiful local and random drama over power it. There was many interesting probes into the idea of no secrets in relationships, what one will do to keep the status quo and even the idea of if paradise or happiness can exist. Still these are merely probes and there isn't enough depth into any of these ideas to really tie the movie together. About midway through there is the sense that we are just running around and following Richard which is fine until you realize that there is no destination or purpose it gets a little trying.



The ending of paradise would have been even more powerful if there was a better build-up to it, more defined looks into the issues of human nature that were raised. Never-the-less it was still an excellent dramatic point in the story and drew the piece together well. It was quite provocative despite its flaws. That alone would have been an excellent ending to the piece yet the story continues which makes it become trite and almost completely unbelievable once again. The idea that after all of that one can just return to the status quo that they once left with not consequences or repercussions is predictable in the most boring sort of way.

In the end I remain 50/50 on this film. Half of it worked very well in my opinion and half of it just fell short. And I have no doubt that it will be the same gamble for most viewers. Some will love it totally, some will love it partially and some will barely like it.

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