Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Staying on top of the box-office charts in the US, is The Beach, Leonardo DiCaprio's much-talked-about follow-up to Titanic. Directed by Danny Boyle, the hip Brit film-maker who has to his credit such smashes as Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, this film has been adapted for the screen by John Hodge from the cult novel of the same name by Alex Garland. The plot, did you ask? Well, it's about an American backpacker who, while passing through Thailand, is given a map which reveals the route to an unspoiled island paradise. It turns out to be a traveller's utopia where the food is fresh and the grass is free. But, of course, it's not long before things start to go very, very wrong!

All the ingredients for a multiplex-packing-crowd shocker are already there in the novel (brutal drug dealers, creepy hippies, shark attacks, mind-bothering hallucinations). So under the cinematic guidance of Boyle, the final result should be suitably spooky. Any book-worshipping purists harbouring doubts (like the fact that DiCaprio's character is supposed to be British) should consider that Garland had a strong on-set presence, and reportedly loves everything that Boyle and Hodge have done with it.So there.