Because it is a movie, Carlyle kills himself the next day, but not before turning over the map to DiCaprio. The latter decides to visit the island, and, because it is a movie, easily convinces Canet and Ledoyen to join him. Canet, of course, has no clue that DiCaprio's likely actual agenda is to seduce his perfect ten girlfriend.
It turns out that the island does exist. Because it is a movie, the trio manage to survive a two-mile swim across shark-infested waters, an encounter with heavily armed Thai marijuana farmers, and a jump into a river from the summit of a 200-foot waterfall. They then find the Perfect Beach, which is inhabited by a community of perhaps two-dozen former tourists from across the world.
Key among the community is its leader, chilly beanpole blonde Tilda Swinton, her dislikable lover Lars Arentz-Hansen, and cool black man Paterson Joseph. Because it is a movie, Ledoyen decides on her own that she prefers weird and unreliable DiCaprio over normal and consistent Canet.
DiCaprio, it is certain, would be content spending his days fishing and his nights having sex with Ledoyen. But that would not provide sufficient drama for director Boyle, so DiCaprio becomes a community outcast, losing his girlfriend and his mind while living in the jungle monitoring a group of newly arrived tourists. DiCaprio is to keep them from finding the community, which would violate their truce with the machine gun-toting marijuana farmers. Meanwhile, Swinton is so obsessed with keeping the community secret that she is willing to sacrifice lives to do so.
We suspect that things will end badly in a series of murders. This does happen, but to a lesser degree than expected. The long anticipated confrontation never arrives between DiCaprio and his antagonist Arentz-Hansen, and DiCaprio also doesn't get Ledoyen back, though at least they remain social media friends.
How others will see it. DiCaprio was still leveraging his fame from Titanic, and looking for a follow-up that would keep him in A-list status. Director Boyle, well known for the edgy Trainspotting (1996), seemed a good choice, and the paycheck was undoubtedly also imposing.
But the critics were unimpressed, and DiCaprio's only nomination was from the Razzies as Worst Actor. Today at imdb.com, the movie has an impressive 100K user votes, with DiCaprio, Boyle, and the perfect ten Frenchwoman as draws. But the user ratings decline steadily with increasing age, from 7.1 under 18 to 5.9 from viewers over 45. Oddly, there is virtually no gender spread in any age group.
How I felt about it. DiCaprio searches for a place where the scenery is perfect and everybody is young and hip. He finds a place where you are expected to work in the sun all day, and where you are murdered if you become ill. The good news is that you never grow a beard or get sunburned.