A ROAD TRIP TO SELF-DISCOVERY : "THE BEACH"

I like road movies. But there is an inherent danger to filming them. I mean if you stick to the very basics of the genre, it is pretty evident what’s going to happen. A character is usually discontent with his life; he starts off on a journey, has many adventures, comes out changed and developed a better and / or happier person at the end. There are of course various things you can do to avoid the whole film getting boring, the characters can be original or very realistic, or even just very, very easy to emphasize with. The adventures that will inevitably happen on the way can be really original and unexpected. Or the ending can be “different” not sad maybe – but usually it ends up having to be – but not what one would commonly expect perhaps. The Beach, based on the best-selling novel, starts off looking as if it is going to be everything we have seen before and less. By the end though, it redeems itself. Oh yes.
Richard (a rather young and gawky looking Leonardo di Caprio) is looking for himself. He is a young American who has set out on the road to find a life less-ordinary, like a lot of travelers tramping the roads out there. And like a goodly number of them his path leads to Asia and more specifically to Thailand. The fates lead him to what seems to be exactly what he is looking for: a life completely of the grid and cut off from modern society. On a paradise island, unknown to but a handful of people a small group of idealistic travelers have come together and formed a commune. They have built everything themselves, they live off the land; they do not leave the island unless they absolutely have to in order to get supplies. Their leader is the matriarch Sal (Tilda Swindon) who is firm when she has to be but has been to all intents and purposes “running the show” for a good couple of years now. Richard fully feels that he has found his new home, the place he will live for ever and ever, but it doesn’t take long for him to realize that human nature is human nature whether in a city or on a tropical island and that his “paradise” has darker things lurking in its waters than he could ever possibly imagine…
Like I said, this film doesn’t come off to an incredibly promising start. I mean, the director here is Danny Boyle for God’s sake, I expected more and I was seriously disappointed. But then, the “adventure” bit of the film starts. And the film really takes the opportunity to delve into human nature, the mind and its psychology. The first half, in this sense, is a necessary evil. And to be completely fair just because we have seen the whole thing before it doesn’t actually mean it isn’t realistic. Things similar to this do happen. I am not of course talking about communes on paradise islands but about people backpacking across the world “looking for themselves”. It is a rather sad footnote to modern life that people are completely unable to “find themselves” within the boundaries of city life and have to set off around the world to do so, but that would be the topic of a completely different film. When all is said and done this film is based on a best-selling book. The character development is a bit sketchy at times and some developments aren’t exactly the biggest surprises to hit the big screen. Yet it has been filmed by an exceptionally talented director, and although I haven’t read the book, I feel that a lesser director may well have churned out a completely “ordinary” road movie. Danny Boyle has succeeded in stepping out of that category. In fact the ways he has chosen to film some sections borders on the experimental but I think, in a funny kind of way, it works really, really well. Basically all us humans living on this planet are looking for a way to be happy. We may or may not be successful in our search. But if we do see a glimmer of success, we will do anything, and I mean anything to hold on to that real sense of happiness. You don’t believe me? Watch the film, think a bit, then answer again…