"The surest way to kill a relationship: insist on having things your way."
— Anthony de Mello in The Heart of the Enlightened
This free-spirited erotic thriller directed by Luca Guadagnino is a based on Jacque Deray's 1969 French film set on the French Rivera. This version takes place on the Italian island of Pantelleria, located halfway between Italy and Tunisia. It is a special place for rich people, who seek a sanctuary where they are free to explore their pleasures, and to refugees, who are in transit to Europe where they seek to build a new life. Their paths rarely cross.
Two artistic and epicurean lovers have come to this balmy island to hide from the rest of the world. Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is a rock star who has lost her voice and doesn't know if she will get it back. She is consoled and comforted by her lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts), a documentary filmmaker and recovering addict. They spend time smearing their bodies with sand by the sea, lounging nude by the pool, and having sex under the cloudy sky.
Their pleasant idyll is shattered by the arrival of Harry (Ralph Fiennes), a dynamo of restless energy, non-stop chatter about everything under the sun. He is Marianne's ex and her former producer (as we see in flashbacks of them working together). Harry is accompanied by Penelope (Dakota Johnson), a devastatingly beautiful blonde teenager whom he calls "a lovely bitch." She is his daughter.
Director Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love was an exploration of erotic yearning starring Tilda Swinton as a widow who decides to break free from the prison of her traditional marriage. In this latest romantic thriller, he puts four characters together and we are treated to a Dionysian adventure of nudity, dancing, eating, and sex. One of the high points in A Bigger Splash is when Harry lets himself go in a wild dance to St. Vincent's cover of the Rolling Stone's "Emotional Rescue." He is clearly eager to engage Paul in various competitive games with the end result being winning Marianne back.
Equally erotic is Penelope whose seductive gaze and smile both dazzles and frightens those who fall under its power. She sets her sails and moves toward Paul with focus and confidence that her erotic presence will carry the day when they go hiking together.
These colorful characters are caught up in sexual games where each person insists on having his or her own way with the others. The pursuit of selfish pleasure leaves no time for them to see or respect the movement of refugees through their paradise.