A clamorous Italian counterpart to Summer Hours, last year’s lyrical meditation on French tradition in decline, I Am Love also examines fading nationalist notions of legacy and institution through the story of a prominent family’s slow slide from grace. Or that’s one way to look at it: Bold, weird, and a little stalkerish in its intensity, Luca Guadagnino’s third feature is an open cinematic buffet, as ready to satisfy as it is to displease, depending on your taste and appetite. It lends itself to a number of persuasive primary readings — from proto-feminist awakening to sexual-identity crisis; bitter cultural critique to soaring infidelity melodrama; sui generis tour de force to sweaty exercise in the ecstasy of aesthetic influence — and has plenty of flaws that might be dwelled on as well. It’s a lot of movie; the choice is really yours.
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REVIEW: Tilda Swinton Dazzles in Virtuosic I Am Love
