Director Danny Boyle probably had what it takes to make a good film out of Alex Garland's The Beach. The novel delivers an extraordinary story, but its prose is tight. So what we have here is a plot that screams out to be filmed.

Richard, an Englishman, is a child of the middle class, now in his mid-20s, a clever guy with the world wide open to him, who's already worn down the adventurers' paths in southeast Asia. He's looking for a virgin paradise, a utopia with people just like him, palms and love by an open fire. In Bangkok, a nut who goes by the name of Duffy Duck tells him where he can find it: in an all but inaccessible natural preserve tucked away in the Gulf of Thailand. Then Duffy slits his own throat and Richard slices his way toward his dream spot in the company of a French couple, Francoise and Etienne. Postcard lagoons with a community of huts, an international collection of middle class refugees. The dream comes true.

But Richard's character is questionable at best. He's sharp and experienced and he sees through the group dynamic. He becomes the alpha male of the beach community, competing with its female founder, Sal. No sex, though. And one day, the paradise goes all to hell because a devil called Duffy possesses Richard. The humid heat under the palms sets the stage for the horrors Richard absorbed as a child: Vietnam rules his imagination. He becomes the protagonist of "Apocalypse Now". A hellish paradise, a frantic slaughter.

If Danny Boyle had illustrated this Vietnam-drenched thread of history with the surreal poetry of "Trainspotting", the film might have had a shot at becoming a timeless masterpiece along the lines of "Lord of the Flies". Or at least a contemporary portrait of a spoiled generation in search of one last kick in the global village.

But the British director has made a mistake. He didn't give the leading role to the character actor Ewan McGregor, but instead to the charming baby-faced American, Leonardo DiCaprio. And so, the critical motive doesn't work anymore. Now, the naive American with the sex appeal of a teflon baby barrels into the explosive utopia. The group doesn't split because of his leadership charisma but because the girls are crazy for him. DiCaprio is too pretty to be mean, too superficial. Sal (Tilda Swinton), Etienne (Guillaume Canet) and Duffy (Robert Carlyle) act him into the sand. The paradise - boredom under the sun. The hell is the sharks - not the other characters. The setting is for those in search of living postcards - and not for some mental Vietnam terror. Sad tropics.