hou-3
The only good thing to be said about this overripe and vacuous melodrama is that we were spared the full 210 minutes of the original cut. I am astonished by the rave reviews some people give it and can only think 1. They are Swinton fans, and/or 2. They left their critical faculties at home when they went to watch it. Granted, it is full on in its depiction of massive wealth, and that's interesting enough for the first few minutes, but soon the wooden acting, intrusive direction and jarring music deliver the message that Guadagnino has nothing at all of interest to say. Everything about the movie is second hand. It reminds me of The Garden of the Finzi Continis, another vastly overrated rich Italian family extravaganza.
jootrue
This is a story about the tug of war between those that hold onto tradition and those who crave to be progressive. It is also a study of class and gender, and the irrepressible love which bleeds through and blurs the boundaries. This is a movie of few words, the story of which is told through fleeting glances, a blank stare, and the dizzying sequences of close-ups that mimic the movement of one's own eyes searching desperately for the one face it craves to see. It was the remarkable cinematography of Yorick Le Saux. The score by John Adams was also memorable, often perfectly complementing the protagonists' blissful free fall from grace, the tempo matching with the ever increasing heart rate of the viewer. It was a jaw-dropping experience.
joel-280
Let's start with what's good: beautiful outdoor shots, a beautiful mansion in/near Milan, wonderful stuff about the servants and the parties of the very rich.That's all, folks...Every character is cardboard; there's no depth, or at least (in the Emma -Tilda Swinton character) no believable depth. The plot has no surprises, except for one complete deus ex machina that's used to wrap it up -- with an ending that I at least found, consistently with the rest of this turkey, to be wildly unlikely and hence incredible. Ooooh the languor of the formal-dinner-partying rich, back in the days when one had a dozen servants to execute it. Ooooh the loving devotion of the chief housekeeper, mother to all three generations of "her" family. Oooooh the lovely, hairy body of the unsurprising love interest. And so on, and so on. The unfeeling, greedy industrialists? Wow, that's shocking. The sensitive son, who has no problem with his gay sibling but butts heads with his greedy cold dad? Who would have thought it? There is no interesting idea anywhere in this movie.
mike-613-161182
This was so dull that I fell asleep.I get what everyone says about it. The cinematography is effective and the not-fitting-in-ness of Emma's character is apparent. She is a Russian living in a high society Italian environment and she gets embroiled in a steamy affair with her son's friend. But so what? What the film really lacks is exposition. I want to be told what is going on not to have to try to infer from supposedly meaningful looks or the power of Tilda Swinton's eyes - neither of which I picked up on. There was too much silence (I don't care at all for film scores - they should not be necessary to put across the power) where the viewer is expected to understand what the characters are thinking. Simply not good enough.While all the worthies out there will crow about the wonderful emotions that the film evokes, I wonder how many of them really understood it, or as one bright reviewer said, was it simply a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'? Another reviewer that said that the speed of the plot was 'glacial' (especially in the first hour), was spot on.
AD
