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The Beach
Year : 2000
Director : Danny Boyle
Starring : Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen
Genre : Drama / Adventure

Richard is a young, nicotine-addicted traveller and an avid pop-culture buff with a particular love for video games and Vietnam War movies. While in a hotel in Bangkok, he finds a map left by his strange, whacked-out neighbour (Robert Carlyle) who just committed suicide. The map supposedly leads to a legendary island paradise where some other wayward souls have settled. There the adventure begins. Based on the Alex Garland novel.

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I have not read the Alex Garland novel upon which The Beach is based, so I'm not in a position to comment on how true to the book this movie is. However most reviewers say that the movie butchers the book!

The Beach is divided into two sections. The first, which comprises two-thirds of the running time, is a fairly straightforward adventure/romance. It's all very Blue Lagoon-ish, with the flora and fauna consistently overshadowing the paper-thin characters. Even a silly rubber shark has more personality than half the men and women populating this movie.

The last 40 minutes aren't merely dissatisfying - they're virtually unbearable. And, in the end, it all seems to signify nothing.