Member review

After I first heard about this movie, I was very eager and excited to watch it ultimately because of Leonardo Dicaprio, then when I saw that it was listed as a thriller my excitement levels rose, as they are some of my favourite genres of movies. It didn’t really have that many expectations for the plot seeing as I didn't enjoy Boyle’s other movie Trainspotting. However, I was wrong the plot had all sorts of unexpected twists and turns.

Danny Boyle's ‘The Beach’ is almost like the sequel to titanic as Dicaprio is once again on a beach but not before he gets the real feel for tourism in Bangkok. Dicaprio’s character, Richard, has come to Bangkok to experience a new way of life. In the hotel that he books he meets a guy who tells about this paradise Island. Richard decides to take it upon himself to see if the guy ‘Daffy’ was telling the truth about it. He conjure up a team a three, him and two other people who he also met at the hotel, Francoise (Virgine Ledoyen) and Etienne (Guillaume Canet). The first part of the movie follows their journey, their disruptions and their resolutions. Richard's, whole plan has changed after going on this journey he decides to go on. Everyone he has left at home are worried about him. The second half of the movie shows Richards realisation of how messed up this ‘paradise’ is. He starts to become insane and his thoughts start eating away at him. We as the audience are forced into some sort of sense security with some other characters that we are introduced to. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie is full of action, and it included a surprise ending.

There were many parts of the movie that I enjoyed, i really enjoyed the cinematography and the contrast between bright colours and duller colours in one shot. I also really liked the character development of some of the characters Tilda Swinton’s characters development was one of the most drastic but it was very entertaining and unexpected.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack and use of music and sound affects, the music really helped to elevate the emotion. I also liked the use of special effects and mixing reality with fantasy, this sort of things happens in many of Boyle’s movies e.g. Trainspotting.

Despite me saying I enjoyed the plot development it was a plot where you had to pay attention throughout the entire movie to understand completely what is happening, so if you have a short attention span, like me, the movie probably won't make that much sense and is probably not the film for you.

I also began to dislike Richard as a character as some of the choices that he made were not the smartest.

I would recommend this movie to 15 year old above, as mentioned before the storyline is quite confusing if you don't pay attention all the way through. There are some very graphic and violent scenes in The Beach, this is another reason why I wouldn't recommend it to a younger audience. The movie is actually certificated as a 15 so it's very accurate.

This was a unique story and plot line and I’d never seen/heard of anything with this sort of plot before. The character types were the same as in most other movies but not so much that it would bother anyone. I also enjoyed that Boyle included his signature techniques and styles in this movie like his does his others.