It stumbles into melodrama, but I Am Love backs up its flamboyance with tremendous visual style and a marvelous central performance from Tilda Swinton.
It stumbles into melodrama, but I Am Love backs up its flamboyance with tremendous visual style and a marvelous central performance from Tilda Swinton.
This lavish, sprawling drama from filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has drawn numerous comparisons to the films of Luchino Visconti for the grace with which it plumbs the inner workings of the Italian upper crust. Edoardo Recchi Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) is the aging patriarch of a Milanese clan that has amassed a significant fortune over the years through shrewd investments in the textile business. Edoardo Sr. has a beautiful wife, Allegra (Marisa Berenson), and the two have a reliable and dependable
son, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono). Years ago, Tancredi met, fell in love with, and then married a woman named Emma (Tilda Swinton) amid a trip to Russia, and brought her back home to Milan; their children include sons Edoardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti) and Gianluca (Mattia Zaccaro), and artist daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher). The family gathers for a reunion at Edoardo Sr. and Allegra's villa in Milan, but the happy gathering takes a somber turn when Edoardo suddenly dies not long after having lunch with his family. But the death is far from the only pivotal event that occurs that day: Edoardo Jr. also introduces his mother to a chef, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), with whom he plans to open a restaurant, and Emma finds herself drawn to the culinary artist. Meanwhile, Emma learns that Elisabetta is a lesbian, and though initially startled by this news, she takes the liberation of her daughter as inspiration for her own liberation from confining nuptials. On impulse, Emma travels to San Remo, catches sight of Antonio, and finds herself helplessly drawn to him. Meanwhile, as Emma and Elisabetta undertake their life-changing journeys, all of the men in the Recchi clan outside of Edoardo Jr. feel bound to profit-driven motives -- the commercialism of a class that has long ago shucked responsibility for its workers. This critically acclaimed film constituted Swinton's second collaboration with Guadagnino; they first worked together on the 1999 feature The Protagonists. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The grand architecture of Milan and the icy rhythms of composer John Adams set the tone for this elegant Italian drama about the suffocating power of family, wealth, and tradition.
There's no getting around the fact that this is elegant soap opera,. It won't appeal to every taste. But it's sensational to look at, powerfully acted, and delivers a bang for the emotional buck.
Despite a superb cast and a fabulous look, the picture collapses under the weight of its lofty pretensions, especially in the black hole of the last act, where it topples into near-absurdity.
If you're not in the mood, the whole thing will probably seem pretty silly. But if you are -- oh, if you are -- I Am Love may be the richest, tastiest truffle you're likely to savor all summer.
It' a flimsy melodrama, so overly photographed and orchestrated that it can't help but collapse under filmmaker Luca Guadagnino's ineffable sense of bloat. And though she is indeed glorious, Swinton can only do so much.
When the picture ends in full-blown, melodramatic, raise-the-roof fortissimo, we realise everything that had come before (the highs and the lows) was a tantric tease of a crescendo, leading up to an almighty finale.
I am not a fan of romantic movies but I Am Love dives into its romance with such reckless abandon and such an over the top affection for cinema that I could not resist.
The magnificent Tilda Swinton shines as a woman who discovers a whole new emotional life through a young lover who happens to be a chef. His food leads to a sensual awakening.
You get the feeling Guadagnino wanted to send the same thrill up the spine of jaded modern moviegoers that audiences got at the movies a half-century ago, and in this "I Am Love" succeeds wildly.
I'm calling 'I Am Love' the best movie of the year to date; a companion viewer called it 'repulsive'... Does one opinion invalidate the other? The movie is complex enough to invite such questions, and rich enough to resist answers.
A sumptuous Italian drama that brings to mind the visual and narrative style of Luchino Visconti. Exquisitely directed and acted, with an amazing Tilda Swinton perfectly conveying the discovery of love, this is a beautiful film that grows in a crescendo until a glorious, explosive finale.
The melodramatic and posh spirit of Luchino Visconti mixed with Hitchcock's study of female psychology (Marnie) Style over substance, but a ravishing style.
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