I Am Love

City Paper Grade: A-

by Sam Adams

THE DEEP END: Tilda Swinton is a powerhouse as the matriarch of a Russo-Italian family on the precipice of great change.

Former fascist collaborators now eyeing a move toward global branding, the Recchi family is, or would prefer to be, unstuck in time. Before his death triggers an imminent identity crisis, the family's aged patriarch curtly rejects his artist granddaughter's gift of a recent photograph, demanding instead his customary painting. There will be no altering of tradition on his watch, at least none unless it suits him.

Circumstances force the family, individually and as a unit, to confront the turbulence of the outside, but the costs of doing so are sometimes severe. Still, the world is changing, a phenomenon reflected in globalized business plans and fusion cuisine, temptations which repel some members of the family and irresistibly seduce others.

Swinton's character develops a passionate attraction to her son's friend, a chef whose goal is to open a remote mountaintop restaurant where dishes combine elemental tastes in unexpected combinations. Not surprisingly, that description works for Guadagnino's style, as well, which mashes up melodrama and modernism with dizzying abandon. The movie's pointed stylistic eccentricities — drifting zooms that gravitate toward incidental detail, a booming score composed of repurposed John Adams compositions — are so reminiscent of Arnaud Desplechin's Kings & Queen and A Christmas Tale that the resemblance can be distracting. But then Desplechin never cast Swinton, whose very presence acts as a ballast against Guadagnino's fanciest flights.