You're pretty domesticated for a rock star.
I don't believe in the concept of the guilty pleasure. As long as it's not the cause or result of someone else's pain, if something gives you pleasure -- especially something as benign as watching a movie -- then there's no reason in the world why you should feel guilty about it before, during, or afterwards. Sure enough, there are plenty of pleasures on display in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash, the 2015 remake of a 1969 French film called La Piscine that starred Alain Delon and Romy Schneider as a couple whose idyllic vacation is shattered by the intrusion of her ex-lover and his teenage daughter. In A Bigger Splash, the situation has been reworked by screenwriter David Kajganich -- from the original script by Jean-Claude Carrière and Jacques Deray -- so it's centered on enigmatic rock 'n' roller Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton, channeling David Bowie at times), who's recovering from having surgery on her vocal cords, which means her current beau, documentary filmmaker Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) in called to do much of the talking for her. This is fine when it's just the two of them lounging around naked at the Italian villa where she's convalescing, but when her ex, bubbly record producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes), shows up unannounced with his recently acknowledged daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) in tow, that not only puts a strain on the couple's relationship, but potentially her vulnerable voice as well.
One thing Guadagnino and Kajganich do well is find the right places to drop in flashbacks to Marianne's tumultuous life with Harry and the circumstances surrounding her hand-off to Paul. (At least, that's how Harry sees it, hence his belief that he can simply waltz in years later and take her back.) Meanwhile, other past events like Paul's supposed suicide attempt are left ambiguous enough that the viewer has to piece them together from the scattered details in the dialogue. This is significant since the film's entire third act turns on whether a certain coupling did or did not occur and whose story is the most credible when the police get involved. To say why they do would be to spoil the dramatic turn the film takes, but since that spoils the hangout vibe it has cultivated up to that point, with scene after scene of Harry quoting Holy Grail (and doing a decent Terry Gilliam impression), singing falsetto along with the Rolling Stones's "Emotional Rescue," and trotting out his oft-told story about working on the group's Voodoo Lounge record, it would be perversely appropriate for me to do so. However, just because Harry "doesn't believe in limits," as Marianne so succinctly puts it, that doesn't mean I have to follow suit.
