A Bigger Splash is a nice film

Eh. I found the movie to be almost unwatchable, to be honest. Tilda was the only redeeming factor for me. "La Piscine" isn't exactly a milestone in cinema, but it felt like "Sunset Boulevard" after seeing this.

It's unbelievable how many things Guadagnino and the writer managed to merge, without any of them actually carrying a decent narrative purpose: Sicilian folklore (complete with pentolaccia!), rock culture and, worst of all, the migrant crisis: did we really need a gratuitous lesson about it from the atrocious Marshall character? Doesn't anyone watch the TV news? Also, the character development was basically non-existent: nothing that happens for 80 minutes credibly paves the way to the tragic ending. Marianne finally confronts Penelope, accusing her of playing games. But, apart from a moment of the lake, Johnson basically sleepwalks through the entire movie, without doing anything relevant. With Jane Birkin, it was a constant provocation in the original film. And the film focuses too much on Fiennes (who's just a suffocating presence in this) and Swinton, while reducing Schoenaerts (whose role was the leading one in the original) as a second banana whose relationship with Harry isn't explored enough for the final climax between their characters to feel like the logical culmination of anything. I can see why some would love Ralph in it, but I personally found his hammy antics cringe-worthy to watch. I blame Guadagnino more than him for the result, but the Harry character is one of the main reasons I couldn't take the film as anything more than a gross farce. Johnson was a non-presence as Penelope, while Schoenaerts was as animated as he was in "A Little Chaos":  I can't blame him if he wanted to be somewhere else, but this is the second time in a row that he deeply disappointed me. As an Italian, I will add that it was particularly distracting for me to see Corrado Guzzanti- a very famous comedian- in the farcical role of the Marshall in the end. Well, at least I imagine that non-Italians would react more indifferently to this. Let's just say I felt the way a Brit would've felt had John Cleese's Inspector Praline shown up. :-)

Thanks goodness for Tilda, at least. Even in a disaster like this, she's the only saving grace: I immediately had this feeling in the first Venice clip for the film, which she stole without saying a word. The film only comes to life on her facial expressions. She's always so natural, magnetic and genuinely compelling: I felt I was watching a different movie when the camera was focusing on her- even if she wasn't moving nor speaking a word- rather than her co-stars.

I really can't wait for Matthias' next collaboration with Roskam. I need a return to form performance from him before I lose interest in his career.

I think this TIFF tweet perfectly captures my feelings:

https://twitter.com/TIFF_NET/status/743115120176332804

Amen!