I Am Love (2010)

One of my all time favorites.

As Good As It Gets

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that lifted me off the ground into another world. Io Sono L Amore is one of those movies that just took my breath away and kept me floating for days. Still remember the sunshine on my face when I walked out the cinema. Really felt heavenly!Didnt know anything about this movie when I went into the movietheatre. I must admit that the story is too complicated to rewind, but "Io Sono L Amore" is all about the feelings that will rush over you once you get hooked. It is very slowpaced. Very delicate. Very European. So maybe you wont get hooked, because there is no other director that splits audiences in half as much as Luca Guadagnino does. If you are the moviegeek type however, who loves arthouse films, then I will strongly recommend this legendary epic too you. If you are the impatient type who wants fast plot turns then you might want to reconsider. But what the heck, I am not the patient type either, but I still loved it more than any other movie in years. Would be such a shame if you would miss out on one of the most delicate and wonderful epic movies of the last decade. What do you think? No dont think, take a chance!....So there I was, outside of the cinema afterwards, bathing in the sunlight, feeling glorious and dumbfounded at the same time. I had just witnessed one of the most emotionally intense movies in years. Oh how do I love "Io Sono L Amore" !!!

I am not a fan of deer in the headlights style acting and Tilda Swinton gives up a great deal of it in this movie. Look at me as I stare blank faced and wide eyed as things, life things are happening around me. If anything redeems this movie somewhat, it's the splendid locations; the gorgeous mansion, the city, etc. The story fails because it does not give us anything to strive for or push against except the malaise, boredom and passivity of the main character who is not very sympathetic. It is hard to root for her, in fact you kind of hope she absentmindedly walks into a door at some point, or miscalculates and shoves an olive up her nose instead of her mouth in the repeated fork journey from plate to face.

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.

I Am Love looks beautiful, that much is obvious. It has some really exquisite cinematography, snippets of pieces of John Adams' music that are used brilliantly, and a fine cast. The story is rather simple and straight-forward but never generic, but the directing of the film is perhaps what makes it really watchable and oddly soothing. Tilda Swinton is fantastic here, peeling off layers of her characters as the film goes on and reminding us of her greatness. This is one of her best performances, and for that I think she didn't get nearly enough notice. The last 5 minutes are amazingly entertaining, and although it could have easily ended on a note of failure, instead it just makes the finish that much more satisfying. Definitely recommended.