A Bigger Splash
A rock ’n’ Ralph creation…
Having proved his brooding actorly worth from Heathcliff to Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes seems set on having some fun now. So far, we’ve had action Ralph in Skyfall/SPECTRE and comic Ralph in The Grand Budapest Hotel – both a far cry from The English Patient. Yet his latest twist pips the lot to the pleasure post: all-shagging, all-boozing rock’n’roll Ralph in Luca Guadagnino’s twisty, frisky and highly enjoyable semicomic melodrama of desire and danger.
Guadagnino’s semi-remake of a 1969 French psycho-drama is a welcome reunion with his I Am Love star Tilda Swinton, suitably ageless and charismatic as Marianne, a Bowie-ish rock star living in Sicilian seclusion with butch toy-boyf Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) after a throat op. They seem content but bored in this fame-bought bubble. But the boredom pops when Marianne’s ex/producer Harry (Fiennes) noisily gatecrashes their party, bringing with him his just-discovered 22-year-old daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson, loading every word with suggestion), a taste for coke-fired fun and heaps of trouble.
Fiennes’s live-wire prattling and unquenchable energy is a joy to watch, particularly when he slaps the Stones on the stereo, rips open his shirt and cuts a wild rug; Oscar Isaac in Ex_Machina, eat your heart out. The performance is so exuberant it almost leaves the film with nowhere to turn, but Fiennes is also sly at suggesting hidden agendas and a goading neediness as Guadagnino clouds the scene with ominous intimations of possessive, lusty jealousy.
If not all the darker spins are earned, nor does a background theme of refugee tragedy generate much momentum. Yet Guadagnino cooks up atmosphere and mystery to compensate, mixing languid lunches, sun-baked bare flesh, snakes on the veranda and shock twists to sustain a seductive tension. And if the film dies a little when Ralph is off screen, he sure makes every moment count when he’s on.
THE VERDICT Despite some loose ends, Guadagnino’s melodrama drips with mood and boasts a runaway lead in Fiennes: his bum-bared makeover is a bells-on blast. Swinton shimmers, too.
› Certificate 15 Director Luca Guadagnino Starring Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson Screenplay David Kajganich Distributor Studio Canal Running time 124 mins