20140402: Drama Review--I Am Love

I Am Love

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Italian live action feature length film, 2009, rated R, 120 minutes, drama. romance.
2. IMDB: 7.0/10.0 from 10,555 audience ratings.  Spoken word is in Italian; English subtitles.  Estimated budget, 10 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 80% on the meter; 68% liked it from 15,517 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 268,174 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Luca Guadagnino.
6. Starring: Tilda Swinton as Emma Recchi, Flavio Parenti as Edoardo Recchi Junior, Edoardo Gabriellini as Antonio Biscaglia, Alba Rohrwacher as Elisabetta Recchi, Pippo Delbono as Tancredi Recchi, Marisa Berenson as Allegra Rori Recchi,


2. Setup and Plot
1. The Recchis are an Italian family based in Milan that is quite wealthy from Edoardo Sr's investments in the textile industry.  Edoardo's son Tancredi married Emma, who was visiting Italy from Russia.  Emma embraced Italian culture and reared Tancredi's son Edoardo Jr (Edo).  Edo was a race car driver, and was also interested in starting a restaurant with his long time friend Antonio.


2. As the film progresses, Emma organises dinners for important guests.  Edo and Antonio move forward with the restaurant.  Edo takes more control of the family business.  The family decides to sell the business; this will make them even richer.


3. Emma sees that she is attracted to Antonio; her marriage to Tancredi is depicted as cold from start to finish.  Elisabetta (Emma's daughter, Edo's sister) tells Emma that she prefers women to men; this ends up having zero dramatic impact.


4. So...will the sale of the textile plants go as planned to the group from India?  Will Antonio and Edo get the restaurant going well?  Will Emma's affair with Antonio torpedo everything?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The real and imagined problems of the upper crust in modern day Milan, Italy.
2. Two stars of five. 


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Gorgeous, well-executed.


2. Sound: 4/10 OK, I suppose.  It did not seem to be a factor in the film.  Much of the film is next to silent: footfalls, doors closing, other incidental sounds.


3. Acting: 2/10 Most of the actors have talent, but I did not see much of that talent shine; the performances were dull, listless, uninteresting.


4. Screenplay: 4/10  Long and slow with reasonable character development.  Not much of a story was told, with zero characters that I cared about.  The ending certainly reinforced that strongly.