The Beach

(SPOILERS)
Part of the problem with stories which attempt to demonstrate why an idealistic society can never be attained is that the events which bring its inevitable downfall often seem forced. The Beach is certainly no exception. DiCaprio's tryst with the female leader of the commune isn't believable for one minute. He's obviously deeply attracted to Virginie Ledoyen, so his ready submission to the seduction of a considerably older and less attractive woman rings loud and false. All it amounts to is a convenient plot element which sets up his fight with Ledoyen later in the film.

The whole to-do about his making a copy of the map to the beach is overblown, since he had no idea the commune even existed at the time, nor of the implications of telling others about the hidden spot. While we can appreciate his regret at the act, the guilt festooned upon him by himself and the others is undeserved. The film would have us see it as an act of betrayal (and thus another sign of human weakness), when in reality it's nothing of the sort. Since it's the map which ultimately brings about the entire commune's downfall, can we conclude that maintaining a Utopian society is possible as long as we don't hand out maps? This doesn't seem so hard to do.

Which brings up the next problem with the movie's plot. DiCaprio and his two companions seek out the beach with no knowledge other people are even on the island. What did they expect to do once they got there? Presumably, smoke some of the abundant marijuana, hang out for a day or two, and leave. Which hardly makes searching for the beach the life-changing experience their "drop everything and let's go look for it" actions would imply. Without prior knowledge they were going to find a commune of similar-minded individuals on the island, they certainly couldn't have expected to set up house there.

Last of all, the film concludes with DiCaprio gazing at a picture of the commune's inhabitants, while he muses about it being one of those happy times in life which can never last. We can interpret this two ways. Either the commune was sincerely the ideal society it attempted to be (whereupon we can revert back to the "just don't hand out any maps" argument), or the commune was shown to be a false presumption all along. I think the film wants us to believe the latter case is the truth. Which means DiCaprio is musing over a lost happiness which never really existed in the first place, and which therefore undermines the entire final scene. At best, he is fondly thinking back to how he and the others believed they were living an idealistic existence at the time. But then the final scene loses much of its bittersweet tinge, since nothing was truly lost except self-deception. Either way, there seems to be a gap between what the film asks us to believe, and what it actually demonstrates.