I AM LOVE Mellow Drama

I AM LOVE

Mellow Drama

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Starring Tilda Swinton, Gabriele Ferzetti, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Pippo Delbono

Your enjoyment of this epic tale of the trials and tribulations of a rich Milanese textiles family will depend largely on your appreciation of lush visuals in lieu of driving narrative. I am Love (Lo Sono L’Amore in the original Italian) is a slow moving but beautifully staged film, more concerned with atmosphere and composition than pacing. It’s not so much a case of style over substance as style over momentum, and the deliberate rhythm of the piece makes it difficult to penetrate, despite the accomplished cast.

Oscar winner Tilda Swinton stars as Russian trophy wife Emma, whose husband Tancredi (Delbono) and son Edo (Parenti) inherit the family business upon the death of the patriarch Edoardo (Ferzetti). Their ascension marks the beginning of a turbulent time for the clan; first Tancredi sells off the family business, as soon as he is able, while daughter Betta (Alba Rohrwacher) comes out as a lesbian. Meanwhile Emma, perhaps inspired by her daughter to seek some measure of freedom and self-expression in what she has come to see as a gilded cage, embarks on a torrid affair with Edo’s friend, chef Antonio (Gabbriellini).

The key problem is the wild tonal shift that occurs when Swinton’s character decides to tumble into bed with Antonio; whereas much of the film is restrained to the point of being stilted, these sequences play out in hazy golden tones, like some kind of Mills & Boon style TV movie. The contrast is too much, and their relationship comes across as melodramatic and overwrought.

On the other end of the spectrum, every other aspect of character and motivation is underplayed to the point of being invisible. Swinton has made a career of essaying icy, rigidly controlled characters, and she takes to the role here like a duck to water, but the other actors suffer in parts that I’m sure were meant to be subtle but come across as merely underwritten.

You can’t argue with the film’s visual merits, however; director Guadagnino’s camera moves and zooms over lavish sets and exquisite costumes, capturing a wide range of moods and locations from Milan’s wintry streets to the lush golden San Remo countryside, all threaded together by an odd, haphazard score. Indeed, whatever urgency the film has comes from John Adams’ musical work, and his soundtrack is probably the most interesting element of the whole enterprise.

Indeed, ‘interesting’ is probably the kindest and most accurate epithet one can give to I Am Love. It’s like a scale model of a classic car; stunning in its exacting attention to detail, but bereft of power because ultimately you know there’s nothing under the hood. Without a deeper emotional connection to the characters than the script allows, it’s impossible to care about the self-inflicted problems of the idle rich, and the film remains an attractive but empty vessel.

_TRAVIS JOHNSON