Film Review: A Bigger Splash

We've been chatting with Henry Heffer all about his views on 'A Bigger Splash.'

Luca Guadagnino’s first feature film I am love was a smart and beautiful rendering of what is means to suddenly be Italian and experiencing a flush of new emotions as a result. His second feature A Bigger Splash (originally appearing in 1969 as La Piscine, which substitutes Sicily for St Tropez), exhibits a doomed imitation of these emotions, performed by western tourists. It makes for a daft encounter and a muted farce that leaves its initial spark behind, when it tries to get serious.

Ralph Fiennes is on extraordinary form as the eccentric and imposing Harry, a record producer and former flame of Tilda Swinton’s songstress Marianne. He swaggers into her Mediterranean postcard, bearing an estranged daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson), aggravating Marrianne’s younger boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) and scoffing drugs and dialogue like this could be his last performance.

He almost saves the film too, dealing with the rest of the drab characters with a no nonsense injection of fun, drama and then conflict. But thanks to the tediousness of the Americans (Matthias Schoenaerts once again donning the accent), the film fails to fly and ends up dead, at the bottom of the pool.

There are some subtle delights to this film that show that Guadagnino is a director of some class. There are subtle references throughout that acknowledge this film is set on the bridge to the wider world. The immigration crisis, as it is known, appears several times, as a muffled reference or a muted confrontation and it works well. Also, the flashback sequences are sublimely presented and place the story eloquently into context; where most directors would have phoned it in.

The real star of A Bigger Splash is the envy inducing island of Pantelleria. Where the beauty of a sunny Mediterranean holiday, released during the never ending winter of February 2016, becomes a talisman to aspire to. But then horrifically sweeps that dream from under our feet. The island is not just another character, but a blunt object used to bludgeon each other to death. In the end I was starved for romance, beauty and laughterall of which I would have in abundance on my island paradise.