In a sentenceEven the music seems determined to get Tilda Swinton out of that family
In Milan, Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton) is part of a wealthy Italian family. The Recchis include Edoardo Recchi Junior (Flavio Parenti), Elisabetta Recchi (Alba Rohrwacher) and Tancredi Recchi (Pippo Delbono). Emma’s romance brings her own wishes into conflict with an established family life, as she begins to consider what she wants beyond her place in the household. Moving between Milan and the surrounding landscapes, the story follows her growing awareness of those desires and the difficulty of giving them room within the life she already has.
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Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love is a moving, sometimes overbearing melodrama, carried by Tilda Swinton’s sensitive performance. We recommend it, despite stretches of slow pacing and music that occasionally overwhelms the actors.
Luca Guadagnino takes the upheaval within a wealthy Italian family seriously, and asks us to do the same. We recommend I Am Love: it is absorbing, often moving, and willing to risk excess when a tidier film would keep its feelings small. Its weakness is a tendency to underline what Tilda Swinton has already made clear as Emma Recchi. The film needs her restraint, especially when its music and images try to make every feeling unmistakable.
Tilda Swinton gives Emma enough uncertainty to keep the romance from becoming a simple declaration of independence. As Emma becomes more conscious of what she wants, apprehension remains visible alongside the pleasure in her face. We were moved by that uncertainty: she makes happiness seem unfamiliar enough to require some care. The performance suggests someone still learning to trust what she feels, and that hesitation keeps her recognisable when the direction grows more forceful.
Yorick Le Saux lets us spend time looking at Milan, and allows the landscapes beyond the city to hold our attention too. Francesca Di Mottola’s production design gives the family’s prosperity a formality that makes Emma’s uncertainty seem conspicuous. The care given to these surroundings helps explain why anyone in this family might resist change. We understand why the film looks so closely, although the pleasure of looking occasionally delays the next meaningful exchange.
John Adams’s music gives the romance an urgency that the leisurely storytelling does not always supply on its own. Its force often feels right, but there are passages where its insistence draws attention away from Emma. Walter Fasano’s editing shares the film’s patience, sometimes usefully and sometimes beyond what a scene can bear. At 120 minutes, this is hardly an unreasonable demand on an evening; it is the uneven pace within those minutes that we notice.
The screenplay, credited to Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano and Luca Guadagnino, is most persuasive when it keeps Emma’s wishes close to her doubts. We believe in the difficulty of wanting something that threatens an established life. Some of the dramatic pressure is applied too bluntly, however, and the characters can briefly seem to be serving the plot. We would have liked the writers to trust the quieter exchanges more often, since Tilda Swinton has already given them enough to work with.
As a melodrama, the film understands that a change in someone’s private life can feel large enough to disturb everything around them. It takes that feeling seriously without asking us to admire Emma simply for having it. Anyone who dislikes a lingering image or an emphatic musical passage will find plenty to object to, and some of those objections are fair. Yet the romance remains tender enough to justify staying with a film that occasionally makes rather a lot of itself. Choose it when there is time to let a romance be a little unreasonable.
Calhoun presents the film as a work of masterly daring and skill. He singles out its boldness, while the story unfolds within a powerful, wealthy Italian family.
Read the full review →Weissberg calls the film a stunning achievement and predicts worldwide arthouse buzz. He praises its meticulous visual craft and performances, especially Tilda Swinton’s commanding portrayal of Emma.
Read the full review →Ebert gives the film a strongly favorable assessment. He singles out Tilda Swinton's performance and the film's visual elegance.
Read the full review →Kohn finds the film’s bold style and emotional storytelling mostly compelling, despite a misstep in its dramatic confrontation. He especially praises the final sequence, where the visuals and music give the story’s ending powerful emotional weight.
Read the full review →The critic sees the film as an elevating, stylish reclamation of melodrama, though its impression may not last. They praise its lingering visual gaze over Milan and the surrounding landscapes.
Read the full review →The review finds the film stately, original and moving, though it drags at times. It praises the effective score and the bold use of Italian genre-cinema flourishes.
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