The Beach
Leonardo DiCaprio
Parable
of Paradise of the Lost, July 6, 2010
THE BEACH held my interest,
DiCaprio was quite good & Tilda Swinton fascinating in her characterization
of a dominant & conflicted leader of castaways on a little bit of Paradise.
I'll attempt to make a few comments lacking plotline because that's more than
covered on the main page & other reviews.
The movie can be seen as a cautionary tale of pseudo-religious cults based on
hedonism, rejecting society for a too-good-to-be-true a-social escapism fueled
by a charismatic leader and/or drugs.
In THE BEACH (a "hidden" Thai island) both elements are clearly
featured. In an early scene the intrepid Eden seekers suddenly find themselves
looking at acres & acres of growing ganga. I'm pretty sure it was the real
thing because I found myself salivating at the very sight of it.
In the middle of the film Tilda banishes DiCaprio from the group for revealing
a map leading to the mystic Highland. When he asks what he's supposed to do,
she ominously replies, "Get the map back." From this point on
DiCaprio is alone & appears to be descending into madness. This I felt was
going way over the top & overblown. It wasn't Dicaprio's acting so much as
the script. Fortunately it got on track--well, more or less--as the whole
scenario escalated into violence.
In another banishment scene, the group can't take any more crying from a man
dying of gangrene (they were too afraid to send him to a doctor least the
location of their secret Paradise leak out.) Finally they remove him from the
encampment and leave him out to die--much like certain groups used to
"expose" unwanted babies.
The idea is that no matter how "perfect" a Paradise appears, it won't
remain that way for long once humans arrive on the scene--and, yes, other
people have commented on the fact that THE BEACH is like an adult version of
LORD OF THE FLIES.
When the film ends, you're not entirely satisfied because for the exception of
DiCaprio and to a lesser extent Swinton, the characterizations are too sketchy
for any deep identification or concern with what ultimately happens to them.
This brings to mind lyrics from Joni Mitchell's AMELIA:
"Where some have found their paradise,
others just come to harm...
Amelia, it was just a false alarm."
Review: JEFarrow
Updated 8/10
www.gnostics.com