A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Luca Guadagnino and since there was a really nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, as usual with Guadagnino, the whole thing looked great and, only for this, it was a pleasure to watch this flick. Furthermore, the cast was fine (Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson) and they all delivered some really solid performances. And, yet, even though I enjoyed most of this movie, it didn’t completely work though. The biggest issue was that even though this movie was supposed to be a thriller, most of it didn’t feel like a thriller for most of the duration. Eventually, it was only during the 3rd act that the whole thing suddenly became some Hitchcockian thriller but it came too late in the game. Of course, you could argue that it was actually interesting that Guadagnino didn’t follow the standard rules of the genre but, in my opinion, he should have dropped the genre and go for a drama instead which the movie actually already was, at least, until the final act. Concerning the characters, they were at first fairly interesting but, to be honest, for too long, nothing much really happened and, as a result, they started to become slightly pathetic. On the other hand, I really liked how they subtly displayed that Harry and Penelope had after all a rather similar behaviour. Indeed, even though Harry was very loud and Penelope was rather introvert, they actually both displayed a rather predatory selfish behaviour, usually pushing people’s buttons in order to get what they want regardless of the impact it might have on the people around them. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Luca Guadagnino’s work. 

7/10