A Bigger Splash

Because she needs to rest her voice, famous singer Marianne (Tilda Swinton) retreats with her boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) to the island of Pantelleria for some time. Here in sunny southern Italy, the two enjoy seclusion and their love without many words. It almost seems as if they have found a little piece of paradise on earth. But appearances are deceptive. This becomes clear when they receive an unexpected visit from Marianne's old love Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson). The couple's harmonious get-together is permanently disrupted by Harry's loud, flamboyant ways and Penelope's lascivious innocence. More and more the romantic idyll has to give way to a dangerous maelstrom of jealousy and passions - with fatal consequences.

For the thriller drama A Bigger Splash, director Luca Guadagnino has once again collaborated with leading actress Tilda Swinton after I am Love. He has tailored the role of the successful singer, who enjoys her life to the fullest, perfectly for her. The film, which is a new interpretation of the 1969 French crime classic The Swimming Pool, thrives on its hypnotic images and strong acting. Swinton takes centre stage both dramatically and directorially, but it's clearly Ralph Fiennes who leaves the most lasting impression. As a loud, pushy and somehow unpleasant, yet charming contemporary, Fiennes is in top form. The fact that his play is somewhat exhausting in the long run is quite intentional, as this gruelling behaviour contributes decisively to the fact that events simply have to escalate at some point.

Dakota Johnson is also fully convincing here. Although she is seen only in a few moments similarly textile-free, as in Fifty Shades of Grey, but is in these short scenes much more erotic and thereby also more enigmatic, as in the successful S&M romance. This is also simply because she embodies a much more interesting young woman here, who uses her charms extremely manipulatively and effectively. As a counterpart to the clearly more experienced, doomed-to-silence Marianne, Penelope, flirting with her youth, is simply perfectly cast with Dakota Johnson. Matthias Schoenaerts rounds out the ensemble with an almost stoic calm, but underneath it seethes mightily, also more than convincing.

As coherent as the atmosphere of the production is and as much as the actors can convince, it must also be said that the production likes to wallow in beautiful images and long shots and thus often seems very worn, not to say tough. To tell the story, 125 minutes wouldn't have been necessary. The tensions between the protagonists are quickly established and it's clear after a few moments that the visit from Marianne's ex-lover can't end well. That Guadagnino keeps up his steady narrative pace from start to finish may be consistent, but it also makes the film unnecessarily exhausting. For at times the scenes are simply too plodding and actually relatively inconsequential to the plot, so that the viewer is doomed to fight tooth and nail against the resulting boredom.

Who good actors, beautiful pictures and a pinch of eroticism are enough, A Bigger Splash can definitely be recommended to. But if you're expecting a thoroughly gripping thriller, even Ralph Fiennes' wonderfully flamboyant acting and Dakota Johnson's beguiling looks won't be able to help you get over the long-winded production. An atmospheric, but unfortunately also very unwieldy film and therefore only: worth seeing with restrictions!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp