Friday, August 6, 2010
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME
Friday, August 6, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
I Am Love
The Love She Saves May Not
Necessarily Be Her Own
Tilda
Swinton as Emma Recchi and Flavio Parenti as Edoardo Recchi Jr., in "I Am Love",
making its way around the U.S. and Canada.
Magnolia Pictures
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday, August 6, 2010
Tilda Swinton, arguably the most skilled and proficient actress of the last 25 years, does little
wrong on the big screen. Rare is the actor or actress who is flawless, and
Ms. Swinton is in
a select group of film actors whose work is always just right, even if some of the films they
star in are quite wrong.
Exhibit A is "I Am Love", the independent film making its way around the
country.
Granted, Luca Guadagnino's epic drama is bright, vivid and searing, with
steamy interludes punctuating vital episodes of a drama set in
the Italian countryside. The film suffers however, from a fanciful
giddiness and forced maelstrom underlining its seriousness and pretension.
The Recchi family abides by tradition. The
aging patriarch Edoardo Recchi Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) hands the keys of a successful restaurant business to the unsteady
or unready hands of heir apparent grandson Edo (Flavio Parenti), whose father Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) also has a stake in the family empire. One of
Edo's friends and top chefs Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) takes a liking to
Emma (Ms. Swinton), whom, as luck would have it, is attracted to
Antonio.
Their mutual attraction complicates things: Emma is Edo's mother.
Rhythmically and poetically "I Am Love" achieves a consistent onomatopoeia with
melodrama as its heartbeat. The film, with its mild, delicate Sirkian touches, uses
crescendos of orchestral score to emphasize its most passionate and erotic
scenes. Mr. Guadagnino crafts a story (by himself and three others) that
is better off without its heavy symbolism, yet some of the cinematic aspects of
the film intrude to the point of overshadowing the genius of Ms. Swinton, who masterfully
carries the entire film on her shoulders from start to finish.
The other actors are quite good, particularly Mr. Parenti, though we long for
Ms. Swinton's swift return whenever she departs the landscape. In this
and countless other films the acumen and demeanor Ms. Swinton possesses is never showy, even
if the costumes, outfits and situations her big screen characters are in may
be. Through it all Ms. Swinton transmits a natural, unassuming confidence
and precision that marks her very best work.
"I Am Love" is defined by color, claustrophobia and style. There's
grandeur and elegance in the production design by Francesca Di Mottola. There's discipline in the way food is cooked
and arranged, as if being readied for a
spot on the Food Network or a recipe on a morning TV talk show. Some will
find that "I Am Love" works best in the atmosphere, flavor and tension it brews,
if not the underlying story it tells. Others will find the film to be a
somber, high-class soap opera. For the most part I found it to be an
interesting exploration of ethics, marital tension, class and romantic fantasy.
"I Am Love" is torrid in depicting both Emma's transgressions and the
psychological family drama swirling around them. The drama works more
effectively and efficiently than any rapid, extreme close-ups of body parts that we
see, even if the warmth and sensuality rendered is unmistakable. In the overall
execution of "I Am Love" however, Mr. Guadagnino occasionally lacks the
subtlety and discretion of his lead actress,
employing showy flourishes where quiet, calm minimalist touches in direction would adequately
befit the occasion and mood of the film.
Still, Ms. Swinton is excellent as Emma, mixing the cerebral and physical to
great effect, speaking Italian fluently and displaying the skill that has earned
the "Michael Clayton" Oscar winner her
richly-deserved (if somewhat muted) acclaim. The bad news is that she and
her co-stars are let down by a film that has great intentions yet short-circuits
them with its excitable heartbeat and indulgent running time.
With: Alba Rohrwacher, Maria Piaito, Diane Fleri, Waris Ahluwalia, Maria
Berenson.
"I Am Love"
is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for
sexuality and nudity. The film's
running time is two hours and 14 minutes. The film is in the Italian and
English languages, with English language subtitles.
FOLLOW
SUBSCRIBE TO THE POPCORN REEL MOVIE
REVIEWS RSS FEED
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME