Too many fans seem to be blown away

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Masterful Movie

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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.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.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.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? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 10/10 Gorgeous, well-executed.Sound: 7/10 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.Acting: 5/10 Most of the actors have talent, but I did not see much of that talent shine; the performances were dull, listless, uninteresting.Screenplay: 6/10 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.

Magnificent is the word that comes to my mind on seeing 'I am Love'. It is vividly made, on detailed, glossy sets and the actors are draped in costumes smooth as silk. 'I am Love' is beautiful to watch but shallow and very plain within.The story is of a Russian woman who becomes Italian once she arrives married in Milan to an extent that she 'forgets' her original name and adopts the Italian name Emma Recchi. Unhappy and utterly restrained and subdued to her household duties as the wife of an aristocratic businessman , she one day finds herself drawn towards the newly discovered erotic love with a lower class man.Although the first half is smooth and interesting, I find some scenes to be terribly overdone. The pretentious grandfather announcing his heir is one such scene that can be singled out. On the plus side, the sub- plot involving Emma's lesbian daughter fascinates. It is very well handled, with the right amount of subtlety. The scene at the train station when the daughter ditches her boyfriend carries a strange awkwardness as the family doesn't know how to react to the scene. Swinton here, as Emma, emotes helplessness very well. The following scene deserves even higher points for Swinton's masterful acting when her daughter comes out. It is here that she experiences a jolt of hidden, unfulfilled desire popping out.That is it and from here, the film falls flat. It is left very vague why she goes after the chef. Agreed he makes some delicious Russian food (which Swinton tastes in another wonderful scene) but is that all? After that, before we actually digest their attraction, a very tastefully and aesthetically pictured love-scene is splattered on the screen. The imagery of the insects sprinkled in between is superb! That scene is one of my all time favorite love-scenes. The Sun, skin, grass, body, sweat has never looked so inviting.The second hour drags with little story development and the ending is rushed. 'I am Love' develops as a poem on the unsung beauty of enigmatic love, eroticism and subdued desires but the end spoils it. I never understood the hurry in the climax scene. Yet I am Love is a very good film, well made and directed. Certainly Luca Guadagnino can make better films I eagerly look forward to.The cinematography and costume-design are wow! They very successfully bring magnificence. Swinton is exotic, mysterious and beautiful. These are perfectly nuanced by the lush costumes. She was feminised beyond recognition in the initial reels. The camera-work includes some difficult masterful shots. One of those that would linger in my memory forever is the scene where Swinton descends the stairs irresistibly to passionately kiss her lover. The camera follows her descend the stairs hoveringly. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Same to the scene where she climbs atop a monument after discovering some letters from her daughter. The whole film is delight to the eyes.Tilda Swinton herself is magnificent. She speaks very little, but when she does, it is intoxicating. Her monologue half-way through the film in which she talks of coming to Milan, becoming Italian and her intense struggle is exemplary. With the beautiful images of the valley and her terrific voice, the scene is a highlight. But she seemed unfocused in the second half. It was often difficult to understand her, something we did easily in the first half. Maybe, that is the strength of her performance. All in all, the magnificent Swinton's performance drives the film.The music by John Adams supports the film very well. Luca rightly chose the instrumental pieces although I wonder what Adams saw in the film that compelled him to allow the makers to use his score. The film is a mixed bag. It leaves one unimpressed overall.

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 was afraid this film was going to be soap opera fluff with the luscious rich setting but it turned out quite a bit better.The story line: Beautiful rich mother has affair with her son's best friend a cook. Frankly Edo the cook got the better deal. It ends tragically.The 30s mansion where this takes place some how doesn't look lived in--it looks like a museum but what a house! and smack in the middle of Milan.At first I thought Edo had a relationship going on with the son Antonio...that would have made the story even better--but then again maybe not.Emma the mother is an unforgettable role and the movie is definitely worth watching and you won't forget her. Let the soap opera part of it be pleasant fluff--after all we all like to imagine living such a life in such a house.Italians are second to none with style--from clothes to cars to the people they are riveting.