Director Luca Guadagnino had no intention of providing answers to the questions he dregs up in his third feature film, I Am Love: how does one balance truth to self versus sacrifice for one’s family? How does family loyalty fit into an increasingly global world? What is love?
Guadagnino’s sensual world is occupied by selfish characters interested in skin-deep pleasures, questioning why they don’t feel a deeper satisfaction with life without taking any initiative to find fulfillment. His cinematic genius is overwhelming, however, as his film awakens every sense in the body—making I Am Love an unusual experience.
In modern day Milan, Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton) is a Russian transplant married to an Italian industrialist and attentive to the duties of a bourgeoisie housewife: supporting a recently open lesbian daughter, throwing dinner parties for in-law birthdays and engagements and carrying on an affair with her son Edo’s (Flavio Parenti) best friend. When Edo discovers the affair, a confrontation leads to an emotionless, tragic ending.
With minimal dialogue, Swinton is the clear acting talent, constructing a hollow and isolated housewife through method alone. Not easily overlooked, though, are the inspiring performances of Alba Rohrwacher as the daughter and Maria Paiato as the house nurse, both amidst a disjointed world created by fragmented and flighty cinematographic decisions.
Although I Am Love presents a seductive spectacle of a pulsating Italian countryside, a flat story and forgettable, tired characters cause the film to fall short of remarkable.
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