Good concept, poorly executed.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Checked this out on the merit of Luca Guadagnino's breakthrough film, Call Me By Your Name, in the interest of exploring some his past work. In some ways, I Am Love feels like a dry run for the former, particularly in its second act which is by far its strongest. It captures that same windswept, naturalistic intimacy shared between two characters who are hopelessly drawn to one another despite the social pressures that would pull them apart. Guadagnino displays the same eye for the beauty of the Italian countryside which again acts as a backdrop, and he too adorns the romance with plentiful images of the natural world.But these similarities to Call Me By Your Name are also somewhat detrimental to the film as they draw just as much attention to the ways in which it doesn't quite reach those same heights. The characters here don't feel as rounded and full-bodied which distanced me a bit from the proceedings. There are also many more plot elements revolving around the more numerous supporting characters that fail to be as compelling as the central romance. Additionally, I took some issue with the third act of the film which veers into melodrama and results in a finale that feels forced compared to the breezy, airy quality of its earlier sections. Still, there's plenty of beauty to behold here and it's worth seeing as a formative work in Guadagnino's career, as well as on the strength of its best moments.3.5/5

Is it just me? OK so the husband deserves to be cheated on. He is neglecting his wife like all the rest of these movies. Somehow, the wife is cheating, as always because it's her husband fault. Somehow, like all the rest of these cheating wife movies, It's never the wife's fault for not expressing her dis-satisfaction of her life. It's never the wife's fault for not communicating what she is missing. Skipping the whole idiotic melodrama.In the end, this harlot, is not held accountable for causing the death of her son as he tries to pull away from her after he figured out, his mother, is having an affair with his partner of a restaurant and much younger man. A man as old as her son. The stupid movie ends with her telling her husband she loves the son's partner. The maid starts to pack her stuff. She leaves with nothing and you see her and her lover living happily ever after in a cave? Is this for real? Your time is not worth it.

After seeing some glowing reviews for this film I decided to watch it. I am still wondering who could overlook all the flaws. From the very outset, the film sets itself up as an art house slow burner. The old fashioned opening credits move into bleak winter scenes, where all of the outdoor shots appear to be shot in monochrome, reverting to colour for the interior shots. You begin to think that this will become a clever code for the film, but after a few minutes the idea is abandoned. Either that, or the colour grading of the first few minutes was badly messed up or accidentally taken from an alternative cut of the film. We then move to a series of slow scenes that reveal snippets of information. As the meagre plot slowly unfolds, what becomes apparent is the number of terrible edits. There is one where the lead character jumps from a country idyll straight back to the dressing room of her city house (supposedly 2 hours away) without any establishing shot. I assumed she had taken a hotel room somewhere near the country house. There is also plenty of awful camera work, where the usually static shots attempt to pan from one view to another, get stuck somewhere nondescript in between, then awkwardly settle on their intended destination. If I were recording a home movie and got my camera-work this bad, I'd do it again.The potential intensity of the one major sex scene in the film is ruined. The constantly changing camera angles of their bodies, interspersed with multiple pointless shots of flowers, becomes a confusing mess devoid of all heat and passion. Most TV perfume ads are sexier than this.However, after all these unintentionally jarring errors, there is one crowning achievement that trumps them all - the score. From the very beginning of the film, the madly irritating and inappropriate score spoils almost every shot in the film! What should have been quiet, intense moments are obliterated with discordant plinky-plonk 'modern classical' noise. For example, the final few minutes of the film attempt to describe the culmination of the lead character revealing her love affair, against the painfully bleak backdrop of a funeral of a close family member. The scenes are set in the beautiful surroundings of ancient Italian buildings and the characters' palatial city house. So time for some total silence or the merest background hints of minor chords perhaps? But no! Let's turn up the infuriating racket to the max and let the pretentious chin-stroking moron who wrote this abomination of a film score have his moment, showing off his inability to write music for any purpose other than his own satisfaction.As the end credits blissfully arrived, I and others viewing the film were left either in stunned silence or laughing out loud at this dreadfully botched attempt at creating something oh-so-clever. How did they get it so wrong?

Oh, the beautiousness of True Love! You're a middle aged woman who lives a boring life, with a stoic husband and tedious friends. You're quite well off, but you're not happy. Everyday is an endless procession of parties and dull, dull conversations. I would have sympathy for you, but we, the viewers, have to experience it too. What better way to improve your mood about your shallow existence, than to make sure your misery is shared.Then you meet... HIM. He's a chef. Much younger than you. And a DREAMBOAT. And like most nice guys in the movies, completely devoid of any interesting character quirks at all. Still, having your best years behind you, you fall for him. THE SEX IS GREAT!! You do it inside. You do it outside. Look, the camera is lingering on the close-up of a cricket! A wardrobe! A cloudless sky! It's all so arty! I can just picture the cinematographer and director doing a high-five, while I count the patches of damp on my ceiling.Rarely how I seen such a long film, and not be able to recall almost anything about it after it was over. It was like eavesdropping on the most pretentious bunch of snobs this side of Chelsea, who have Shirley Valentine as their matriarch. Apparently, Tilda Swinton learned Russian and Italian, just for this one role. That's like learning how to disassemble and reassemble a car... so you can clean them for a living. It's just not worth it.The synopsis may refer to it as a 'tragic love story', but I would snip the last two words off there. GREAT DVD front cover, though. That's what made me want to see it in the first place. Boy, do I regret that decision now..... 3/10