Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Aurore Clement, Lily McMenamy
Rating: 15
Running Time: 124 mins
Release Date: February 12th, 2016
Bursting with simmering emotions and intense performances, A BIGGER SPLASH can’t sustain the momentum it gains in the fantastic first half of the film, especially when the film takes a far darker turn towards the end.
Ralph Fiennes dancing. The whole cast of A BIGGER SPLASH are on top of their game here, but Fiennes and his dancing are an irresistible hurricane, a performance so scene stealing that whenever he isn’t onscreen the film suffers for it. He commands the screen with his brash and loud role as he dances, flirts and drinks throughout it. But the rest of the cast are talented enough and their characters written well enough, to keep up with him.
Tilda Swinton stars as Marianna, a David Bowie-like rock star, who after vocal surgery, is on holiday with her boyfriend resting her voice. They’re interrupted by the arrival of Fiennes as Harry, a long time friend of both Marianna and her boyfriend. He’s brought along with him his daughter, Penelope and years of emotional baggage. Swinton and Fiennes are, as expected, brilliant; especially Swinton who arguably has the hardest role of them all as a woman who can’t talk and must communicate everything through facial expressions and body language. But it’s also Matthias Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson respectively who leave an impression, as Marianna’s boyfriend and Harry’s daughter.
This is Fiennes’ film however and his character is the heart of the film, an amazingly unapologetic man who commands and craves people’s attention, not just because he has to be the center of attention but because it’s the only way he knows how to express himself. It’s telling that through all the bullshit his character sprouts and spits out of his mouth, there’s a moment of true clarity when we witness him, half drunk and ranting, as he dances around a room, regaling people with a story of his glory days as a music producer.
Unfortunately the character of Harry embodies both the good and bad of the film; it’s fun and different but scattershot in its approach. Two good first acts are let down by an unfortunate twist in the story that takes a dark narrative turn that just seems wholly unnecessary. It’s a road the film didn’t need to go down and an attempt to liven up a party that was already fun to begin with.
Verdict
