A Bigger Splash (2015)

Good movie but grossly overrated

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Cinematography and filming location won my heart and kept my interest. Felt like spending a relaxing summer vacation there. One liners such as "All of Europe is a graveyard", "I fall in love with every pretty thing" Fiennes drowning scene quote " We're all disgusting, but we love each other anyway" stuck with me for some reason. Lackluster ending. I rated this higher as the film stuck with me and I found it different from many other stamped out films.

I thought this film was annoying, at best. It is also very pretentious. I believe this is owed to the director, who apparently is under the impression he has already won the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award. The worst part is the casting of Tilda Swinton as a rock star (???). She has the charm and appeal of cabbage plant. I can think of at least a half-dozen actresses who are better suited for the role.At first, I was thinking of Gwyneth Paltrow, who is very smart, sexy, beautiful and much more believable. However, I changed my mind, and began leaning towards someone with more of an edge; say Noomi Rapace (or maybe Mirielle Enos).

I loved it. I gave it an 8. Beautifully filmed, sensual laid back acting performances with an authentic feel for the laissez fair atmosphere on a holiday island in the Mediterranean. It reminded me at times of the 1969 movie La Piscine with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. And of course the Lolita theme is in there. The young girl coming of age lying about her age, controlling the men around her with her sexuality. Like Tilda's Swinton character used to control Harry. Harry who is living on his past achievements and now merely is tolerated by the people he loved before. The young girl who is not a weak vulnerable girl but a girl who wants to be in control and who observes the adults around her. An Oedipus complex, Paul killing his 'brother' Harry, there is the Greek tragedy for you. Growing older, literally using a different voice as life prolongs. The end of a rock'n roll lifestyle (the record Emotional Rescue literally dies with Harry in the pool and his death literally becomes an emotional rescue for Harry, Marianne and Paul. The young Penelope on the other hand is just starting her emotional rock'n'roll years and flies to the rest of her life crying in her airplane seat).Harry worshiping Marianne, Harry loving his newly discovered daughter Penelope in an oedipal complex kind of relationship, the policeman who is a worshiping fan of Marianne, Paul loving Marianne in a true and honest way while he is lusting after 17 year old Penelope. The rich and famous and self-absorbed westerners enjoying a low brow holiday in between ordinary people. Getting privileges ordinary people would not get (a table in a full restaurant, a karaoke machine and a party in an empty cafe) And when necessary they won't think twice about blaming the strange foreign other, the African immigrants. Just as easily they will lie to save their own.It's a beautiful, well made sensual slow paced movie.

'A BIGGER SPLASH': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A dark comedy-drama directed by Luca Guadagnino; who also helmed the outstanding 2009 Italian drama 'I AM LOVE'. The movie stars Tilda Swinton (who also starred in 'I AM LOVE'), Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson. It was written by David Kajganich and Alain Page. The film tells the story of four friends spending vacation together, on a remote Italian island, when things go horribly wrong. It's received mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's been nominated for multiple prestigious awards (and it's even won a few of them). I found it to be somewhat interesting, but it's definitely nothing special. A popular rock star, named Marianne Lane (Swinton), and her filmmaker boyfriend Paul (Schoenaerts), are spending vacation together on the Italian island of Pantelleria. An old friend of theirs, named Harry (Fiennes), unexpectedly decides to visit them. He brings along his adult daughter, Penelope (Johnson), who he just met. Things become tense between all of them, and then things go drastically wrong as well.The movie is bizarre, and it does take a really dark turn in the third act. I'm really not sure how I felt about the film as a whole. None of the characters in it are very likable; Swinton's rock star is actually the closest thing to a character you can really root for. The performances are all decent in it though, and the movie is somewhat interesting (at the very least).Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' review at: https://youtu.be/RO7ghqXHCCY