rated on a 4-star scale screening venue : odeon ( liverpool city centre ) released in the uk by fox on february 11 , 2000 ; certificate 15 ; 118 minutes ; country of origin usa ; aspect ratio 2 . 35 : 1 directed by danny boyle ; produced by andrew macdonald . written by john hodge ; based on the novel by alex garland . photographed by darius khondji ; edited by masahiro hirakubo . danny boyle is one of the most hyperactive boors in modern cinema , the film director equivalent of someone who'd take your arthritic father to a rave , forcibly make him dance to the horrible music and claim to be promoting social integration between the generations . he takes gritty works of literature , which are filled with reality and truth , and shakes them up into shallow feature-length pop videos . obviously he paid attention in film school , where they teach you conventional hollywood structures and cheap tricks that please mass audiences ; if only he'd realise you're supposed to move on after you graduate . boyle first trampled on a great book with " trainspotting " ( 1996 ) , a grotesquely lively romp based on irvine welsh's epic study of drug addiction in inner-city scotland . now the filmmaker , and his team of writer john hodge and producer andrew macdonald , have brought us an adaptation of alex garland's " the beach " , in which leonardo dicaprio plays richard , an american backpacker disillusioned by the tacky westernisation of foreign culture . he walks through the cities of thailand shaking his head at the hustle and bustle of yapping market traders , café bars full of people watching television , and vulgar drunken tourists . in his fleapit hotel , the kid is kept awake by the sounds of a crazed scottish pot-head who goes by the pseudonym of daffy duck ( robert carlyle ) and raves about a perfect beach which has so far been kept secret from these ruinous tourist crowds . he takes a liking to richard , though , and gives him a map to this paradise before killing himself . richard and his french travelling companions , étienne ( guillaume canet ) and françoise ( virginie ledoyen ) , do eventually get to the place daffy promised them , and settle into the beautiful locale , which is populated by young folks just as sick as they are at the state of traditional holiday destinations . their community is rather sophisticated -- everyone has work assignments , there are group meetings , huts have been well-built -- and yet more than anywhere else these people have been , their island offers them the opportunity to absorb parts of the world that haven't been trodden on . one of them describes it as a " beach resort for people who can't stand beach resorts " . the dream doesn't last , because inevitably people do find out about the place , and try to come . this invokes the violent anger of the dope farmers on the other side of the island -- an added devastation to the lives of our beach-dwelling friends , who have already begun to destroy their own peace by developing hostile paranoia about their privacy . in his book , garland found all the right notes to tell this story ; he knew that the experience of paradise found and lost had to really happen to the reader , so it had some emotional charge and didn't just become a pretentious cogitation on man's tendency to ruin the gifts god gave him . his hero was a perceptive , down-to-earth brit we could identify with . the beach society was made up of people looking for clean fun , not a bunch of freaks with some twisted revolutionary ideology . and their downward spiral emerged gradually , tragically , out of reasonable concerns that got out of hand . boyle and company , however , plunge enthusiastically into every pitfall possible . the middle passages of their film should settle into beach life , capture a feeling of tranquillity and make us hope that it can last ; instead , the happy part of the plot is covered in a short montage where we see snippets of activity and hear dicaprio's narration tell us how everything was going fine . consequently the madness and carnage of the latter passages come from nowhere and mean nothing . the condensed structure , the introduction of irrelevant romantic subplots and the brief dialogue make " the beach " a film of plot , which is a mistake , since it should be one of journey . the production design and photography are impeccable , and dicaprio's intense screen presence is always fascinating . strange , then , how bland and superficial the film feels ; i think it's because boyle jumps around instead of absorbing atmosphere , and is working from a screenplay without any well-defined characters or key moments . the experience of reading " the beach " and then seeing the film resembles the plight of the characters -- they found something wonderful , rejoiced in it , and then saw a bunch of careless bastards trample it into bloody pulp . copyright ( c ) 2000 ian waldron-mantganiplease visit , and encourage others to visit , the uk critic's website , which is located at <a href= " http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic " >http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic</a> 
