February 13, 2000 -- One sees shadows of "Lord of the Flies" in "The Beach," but that's all they are. Groaning and grunting, this pretentious film seems to be on the verge of saying something about the human condition, but it doesn't quite make it; that's not for lack of trying, however.

The idea behind "Lord of the Flies" is that the veneer of civilization is very thin. Exposed to a jungle environment, man reverts to a primitive, violent state. In "The Beach," we see the jungle as a kind of paradise, the site of an attempt to re-enter the Garden of Eden, but it is also the same jungle which strips the civilization from men and sometimes drives them mad. These two ideas fit poorly together.

Richard (played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and no it isn't his first film since "Titanic" the first was Woody Allen's "Celebrity) runs across a lunatic appropriately named Daffy (played by Robert Carlyle "The Full Monty") in Bangkok. Daffy tells him of a paradise, a place with a "perfect beach," and gives him a map, showing him where it is.

He meets up with a couple of other travelers, Françoise (Virginie Ledoyen of "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries") and Étienne (Guillaume Canet). The three decide to try for the island. They do, indeed, find a paradise of sorts. A beach protected from the ocean and a small commune of young people who have slipped away from the world. The group is led by Sal, (Tilda Swinton of "Orlando"), but the center stops holding and things rapidly fall apart.

First, there are romantic tensions between Richard, Françoise, Étienne, Sal and her boyfriend. Then, Mother Nature gets nasty and bites back, showing the commune that this is definitely not paradise. Due to an indiscretion on the part of Richard, he is banned to spy on a group of possible island invaders. Left on his own, Richard begins to go nuts. He becomes a strange sort of jungle creature. Then men with guns enter the picture to really mess things up.

This movie could have been many things, a commentary on the lack of morality in some people, a statement about the relationship between man and nature, or men and women, for that matter, or a simple observation about the fact that the commune was not really self sufficient and that commune members craved and obtained certain products of civilization. The movie tries to do all that and more, and ends up not doing anything very well. The movie seems to be building to a climax, but instead, it deflates harmlessly at the end. Rather than exploring any of its various themes, it just keeps jumping ineffectually from one to another.

DiCaprio does an excellent job in a very demanding role, and Canet is very good as the middle of a love triangle. The characters of the members of the commune didn't seem to register as well. How did they get there? What had they done before? What did they think of the outside world? Maybe they would have seemed more real if the movies had answered some of those questions.

The cinematography, by Darius Khondji, particularly the location shots are dazzling. There are some good special effects in an overly-long sequence which has the crazed Richard visualizing himself as part of a jungle video game. The music and soundtrack are also good, as are the stuntwork and makeup effects. Unfortunately, the story doesn't keep pace with the high production values on this film. If this film, by some miracle, manages to do well enough at the box office to recoup its production costs, the producer will have to thank DiCaprio, because he's carrying this project on his thin little shoulders. This film rates a C.

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