Rating:  

First Sun, Mikado Film, Rai Cinema, La Dolce Vita Productions, Pixeldna, Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali and Magnolia Pictures.

Written by: Luca Guadagnino, Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, and Walter Fasano.

You kind of have to love Tilda Swinton. She is an uncompromising Oscar winning actress (“Michael Clayton”) who is fearless in her selection of films. She has had a sampling of the mainstream, big budget Hollywood fare, but rests easiest and most comfortably in independent and challenging films and roles. To wit, the 2010 Italian language film “I Am Love”, a complex family melodrama that finds the radiant Swinton taking charge of the film in every scene she is in.

“I Am Love” is a cinematic soap opera of sorts introducing us to the Recchi family. Drenched in wealth, the Recchi family has made their money in the textile industry. When the patriarch of the family, Edoardo Recchi, Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti), announces his retirement at a birthday party celebration, he declares that he must name successors to run his company. He jointly selects his son, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), and grandson Edoardo, Jr. (Flavio Parenti) to carry on the family business. Initially, most in the room are delighted with the decision (save Gianluca, Tancredi’s often overlooked son), and Tancredi’s wife, Emma (Swinton), is equally delighted.

As time goes on and Tancredi and Edoardo settle into their new roles, Emma is bored and tired of the mundane life she lives. She takes solace in knitting or interacting with her daughter Betta, who is away at school. But then she is introduced to Edoardo’s friend, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), and Emma is awakened. Ignored by Tancredi physically and emotionally, Emma stumbles around her desires and finds that Antonio may share an equal interest. As with most melodramatic stories and films, lots of little subplots unfold and secrets, deception, and matters of the heart all reach a breaking point. A breaking point which leaves everyone questioning one another and recognizing the realities of decisions both made and not made.

“I Am Love”, for those initiated in watching a 2-hour Italian language drama, is easily digestible. While the subplots and narrative twists are not unique and rather cliched at times, I found it very easy to invest in these characters, their motivations, their questionable choices, even when the soap suds start to form around all of this. The screenplay, touting four different writers no less, borders on toilsome when stepping back and investigating all the subplots in play. We encounter Tancredi becoming frustrated over Edoardo Jr.’s heart not being in the textile business, Emma and Tancredi’s loveless marriage, Emma taking a fancy with Antonio and vice versa, Antonio and Edoardo, Jr.’s burgeoning friendship, Edoardo’s engagement to the beautiful Eva, Antonio trying to convince his father to finance his opening of a high scale private restaurant club, a secret carried by Emma’s daughter, Betta, which is kept hidden from Tancredi, etc. etc. etc. There is a lot of stuff packed into this film’s 120 minutes and while it is thankfully an easy watch, it also could stand to slim down a decent amount.

On DVD, you may be intermittently pausing to keep all the plot points in place, but Tilda Swinton’s performance is the heart of the piece. In a captivating performance, Swinton is the pulse of the film. The atmosphere lifts when she is up, slows when she is down. There are stretches of silence where she says more than words ever could by saying nothing at all. Better than the film in its totality, she stands head and shoulders above any of her Italian acting counterparts. Embodying an Italian accent throughout, I must disclose that I have no idea if Swinton is true and correct with her diction and/or pronunciation. What I do know is that to fit her character, that of a Russian woman transplanted into an Italian life because of marriage, she not only speaks Italian but adds a subtle Russian affect to her dialogue. Her attention to detail here and in many of her other films is indeed what sets her apart from countless of her peers. She chameleons into her performances and is simply as good as anyone.

By design, ” I Am Love” is going to be viewed by more discriminating viewers. It is an independent, Italian-language film that is very engaging and curious to watch, but dips its toes into a sludgy, melodramatic pool a bit too often. Good supporting performances exist throughout, but it is Tilda Swinton who carries the film on her back. She is the constant, even when Luca Guadagnino cannot reign in some of his more self-indulgent scene set ups and camera shots.

Should I See It?

YES

Tilda Swinton. After seeing her amazing work in a lot of movies, her performance as Emma takes her to new challenges and heights.

Technically the film is beautiful to look at, with incredible set design, locations, and cinematography. Shot with a beautiful eye.

Emma and her decision-making will be an intriguing debate once the film is over.

NO

An Italian subtitled family drama over the course of two hours is a film that will play only to a niche audience and not the mainstream.

Trying to sort through a lot of this will be too much for most viewers. Truth is that English-language viewers not familiar or comfortable with subtitled films may end up a bit lost with it all.

Emma and her decision-making will be an intriguing debate once the film is over.