A Bigger Splash Review

<p>Luca Guadagnino&&num;8217&semi;s latest film&comma; <em>A Bigger Splash&comma; <&sol;em>is a mess&period; Starring Tilda Swinton&comma; Ralph Fiennes&comma; Dakota Johnson and Matthias Schoenaerts&comma; <em>A Bigger Splash<&sol;em> chronicles an undetermined amount of time between a rock star&comma; her documentarian boyfriend&comma; her ex-boyfriend record producer&comma; and his estranged daughter&period; While you could consider this a film that is loose and carefree by design &lpar;I certainly would&rpar;&comma; by the time the last 20 minutes roll around&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not just disappointing discovering where the movie ended up&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s downright confounding&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After a surgery to repair her voice&comma; rock star Marianne Lane &lpar;Tilda Swinton&rpar; relaxes with her incredibly handsome boyfriend&comma; Paul &lpar;Matthias Schoenaerts&rpar;&period; The opening reveals them in various positions of undress and having sex in their pool beside the gorgeous Italian villa they are staying in&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t long before they&&num;8217&semi;re interrupted by their friend&sol;Marianne&&num;8217&semi;s ex&comma; Harry Hawkes &lpar;an energetic Ralph Fiennes&rpar; and his sexpot daughter &lpar;Dakota Johnson&rpar;&period; This reunion reignites tensions that are decades in the making&period; Tensions that were never resolved have now risen to the surface&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106594" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106594" style&equals;"width&colon; 5760px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-106594" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03170638&sol;Dakota-Johnson-and-Matthias-Schoenaerts-star-in-A-Bigger-Splash&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;A Bigger Splash&comma; Elevation Pictures&comma; Fox Searchlight Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"5760" height&equals;"3840" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106594" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;A Bigger Splash&comma; Elevation Pictures&comma; Fox Searchlight Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Immediately&comma; there is a sense of awkwardness and it&&num;8217&semi;s known that there is something going unspoken&period; That mood does not let up for the first half of the film&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t a film centred around any incredibly big dramatic moments &lpar;until the last 20 minutes&rpar;&period; Of course&comma; being an Italian film will invite comparisons to other classics from that region&period; You could compare the awkward existential moments to any early Michaelangelo Antonioni film&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s going to be a Federico Fellini reference with any party sequence&period; Guadagnino is a good enough director to not let you think about those things as his movie is unfolding&period; But he&&num;8217&semi;s not good enough to let you forget about everything else that isn&&num;8217&semi;t important&comma; but should be&comma; to the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Guadagnino is able to direct the hell out of his already amazing actors&period; Swinton&comma; mostly silent due to the surgery&comma; is fantastic with little to use&period; Well written&comma; unlike Johnson&&num;8217&semi;s character&comma; she shows herself as a confident woman who is just okay to lie low away from the fame&period; Schoenaerts is cool and reserved but is able to pull off the heavy lifting when it&&num;8217&semi;s necessary&period; As I said before&comma; Johnson does very well with so little&period; While her character may not be the center of the film&comma; she is used as a sexual device rather than a real person&period; Even at the end&comma; she is an enigma&comma; but Johnson is able to pull it off and make it believable&period; But Fiennes is the star of the show&period; Not unlike his performance from <em>In Bruges&comma; <&sol;em>Fiennes plays Hawkes in an exhausting fashion and shows to have the most fun throughout the film&period; Unfortunately&comma; that energy isn&&num;8217&semi;t picked up by the rest of the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>A Bigger Splash <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t a boring film but it&&num;8217&semi;s not entirely meditative either&period; Picking up little bits of Italian neo-realism from older and better directors like Roberto Rossellini&comma; Guadagnino sprinkles those bits around from time to time with shots of the locals bending over backwards for the rock star and her entourage&comma; rarely acknowledging the issues those people go through&period; You could argue that by even moving the camera towards them and witnessing some of the bad things they go through is enough&comma; but it feels like they moved the camera anywhere else&semi; the director would be accused of neglecting the issues&period; And that complaint can still be laid&period; The film tries to create a portrait of the quartet of characters&comma; but the people around them scream for a landscape&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thanks to cinematographer Yorick Le Saux&comma; there are some literal landscapes on screen&period; The Italian scenery is truly hard to make ugly&comma; and Le Saux only makes it more gorgeous&period; Full of yellows and greens&comma; the image is immaculate and earns <em>A Bigger Splash <&sol;em>some brownie points on that end&period; Any and all footage is typically gorgeous from this film&comma; but without feeling like it&&num;8217&semi;s showing off&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a bit of irony there due to its characters&comma; but that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem lost on the film&period; The characters are front and centre&comma; but the scenery is never forgotten&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106595" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106595" style&equals;"width&colon; 5760px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-106595" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03170619&sol;Matthias-Schoenaerts-and-Tilda-Swinton-star-in-A-Bigger-Splash&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;A Bigger Splash&comma; Elevation Pictures&comma; Fox Searchlight Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"5760" height&equals;"3840" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106595" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;A Bigger Splash&comma; Elevation Pictures&comma; Fox Searchlight Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s not necessarily where the movie goes by the end that bothers me&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s that with the mood of the film being established by that point&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t fit anything that was set-up before it&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t just feel preposterous&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s also extremely silly&period; Loosely based on 1969&&num;8217&semi;s <em>La Piscine <&sol;em>&lpar;The Swimming Pool&rpar;&comma; the picture only becomes a remake at that point&comma; and I wish it didn&&num;8217&semi;t bother sticking so close to its source material&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t recommend reading the plot synopsis for the original&comma; as its plot is the climax of the remake&period; It only cares to ramp up the tension in a way that loses any bit of realism that was established and existed prior to these events&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Guadagnino has underwhelmed with his latest film&comma; and this makes me weary of his upcoming remake of another great Italian film&comma; Dario Argento&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Suspiria<&sol;em>&period; the director&&num;8217&semi;s hand isn&&num;8217&semi;t nearly deft enough to better Argento&&num;8217&semi;s film and that shows here&period; While I still look forward to any of his films&comma; I hope there&&num;8217&semi;s a better hand on the script&period; The story is key for <em>A Bigger Splash<&sol;em> and it never quite has a handle on it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;