A Bigger Splash

Name: A Bigger Splash
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Crime
Released: May 4, 2016
Duration: 125 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton

2016

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 89 Ratings

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6.7

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6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 89 Ratings

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A Bigger Splash

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Movie Details & Credits

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: May 4, 2016 | R

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton

Summary: The lives of a high profile couple, a famous rock star and a filmmaker (Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts), vacationing and recovering on the idyllic sun-drenched and remote Italian island of Pantelleria are disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter (Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson) - creating a whirlwind ofThe lives of a high profile couple, a famous rock star and a filmmaker (Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts), vacationing and recovering on the idyllic sun-drenched and remote Italian island of Pantelleria are disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter (Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson) - creating a whirlwind of jealousy, passion and, ultimately, danger for everyone involved. [Fox Searchlight]… Expand

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 125 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Blake Goble

May 12, 2016

Guided more by emotion and imagery than by any conventional plot, A Bigger Splash is a wicked, mysterious, ceaselessly sexy, and experiential carnal summer whirl. Read full review

Peter Travers

May 4, 2016

Everything in this movie is so ripe and voluptuous that watching it doesn't seem enough, you want to take a bite out of it. Read full review

Justin Chang

May 4, 2016

[Guadagnino's] made the rare movie that, for all its delight in its own beautiful surface, turns out to be altogether less shallow than it appears. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Christy Lemire

May 5, 2016

Simultaneously lush and lurid, sumptuous and startling, A Bigger Splash never goes where you expect, even as its undercurrent of danger is unmistakable from the start. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

May 19, 2016

In its last half-hour, A Bigger Splash becomes a specific kind of story, and it’s not as pleasurable or strange as what preceded it. Read full review

Anthony Lane

May 2, 2016

A Bigger Splash is fiercely unrelaxing, and impossible to ignore. You emerge from it restive and itchy, as though a movie screen could give you sunburn, and the story defies resolution. Read full review

Lee Marshall

Sep 12, 2015

A slight story that aspires to be a thriller but ends up as a rather flat melodrama about a rock-star generation struggling to deal with its twilight years. Read full review

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User Reviews

npotash

Apr 27, 2017

'A Bigger Splash' is slow-moving, but worth watching for Ralph Fiennes bonkers performance alone. The whole cast is good, the setting and corresponding visuals are stunning, and there's a lingering sense that some facts are withheld just beyond our grasp. Killer soundtrack.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

foxgrove

May 4, 2016

‘A Bigger Splash’ is a hypnotically stunning achievement. Stylistically and directorially very much in the same vein as Director Luca Guadagnino’s earlier and equally impressive ‘I am Love’. This new film also stars a gorgeously costumed Tilda Swinton as rock star Marianne Lane, currently on‘A Bigger Splash’ is a hypnotically stunning achievement. Stylistically and directorially very much in the same vein as Director Luca Guadagnino’s earlier and equally impressive ‘I am Love’. This new film also stars a gorgeously costumed Tilda Swinton as rock star Marianne Lane, currently on a getaway with boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaarts) following a throat operation. Their idyll on a Sicilian island is shattered by the arrival of an old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson). Based on the 1969 film ‘Swimming Pool’, this is a film about writing, acting and style. There are no dramatic action set pieces. It’s just four people taking life easy in gorgeous surroundings and becoming ever more intertwined by the complications of their own lives and personas. Psychological and sexual tensions abound and looks and gestures keep you totally entranced as to where the boundaries end and when the breaking points will come. The playing of the cast is superb, especially Fiennes and Swinton. Despite the limiting device of having her character unable to speak for much of the film, Swinton nevertheless effortlessly conveys the required emotions through her facial expressions. Schoenaerts, and especially a flirtatiously seductive Johnson add volumes to the atmosphere and audience investment. They not only provide the eye candy but give the story its palpable sexual charge. Best of all though is Fiennes. Walking an acting tightrope as Harry, he nevertheless gives a carefully modulated performance which at first has one fearful that his character will be played way over the top. This initial reaction is very quickly quelled however, and with many very difficult scenes focused solely on him, Fiennes brings this brash and obnoxious character breathtakingly to life. It has to be amongst his finest work. The film itself is definitely worth seeking out. It deserves your time and money more than something like ‘Triple 9’ or ‘Batman vs Superman’ ever could.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

EpicLadySponge

May 4, 2016

A Bigger Splash is another example of why we should be able to have fun in our vacation. Luckily, the four main actors (and actresses) summed up why we should see this film.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DirigiblePulp

May 21, 2017

Rich beautiful people in the most beautiful location imaginable, authentic outdoor restaurants that exist on mountainsides where only locals and people in movies can find them, and spontaneous karaoke parties break out at dive bars where everyone becomes so enamored they can't help but shrugRich beautiful people in the most beautiful location imaginable, authentic outdoor restaurants that exist on mountainsides where only locals and people in movies can find them, and spontaneous karaoke parties break out at dive bars where everyone becomes so enamored they can't help but shrug off their desperate lower class ennui and join in. Everyone just has the most major issues and they kind of work through them and sleep with everyone else and it's not all fine in the end.

I can't lie and say it's not fun to live vicariously in this existence but it's too bad it doesn't linger much in the mind; like most superficial things once it's gone so is everything that seemed special about it. Though Ralph Fiennes dancing to "Emotional Rescue" is a highlight that lasts.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

netflic

Jun 6, 2016

Starring Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes.
A convoluted love story, a thriller without a thrill.
Very nice scenery (an island in Italy), decent performance, great casting. It would benefit the movie if it were cut in half, especially the first half. The movie is very short on substance andStarring Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes.
A convoluted love story, a thriller without a thrill.
Very nice scenery (an island in Italy), decent performance, great casting. It would benefit the movie if it were cut in half, especially the first half. The movie is very short on substance and even purpose. I felt bored most of the time. In one word, disappointing (especially considering the cast).… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Habibiehakim

Sep 20, 2021

Well, at least I Am Love have a little bit point, this one, i just have no idea, it's an uneven movie and an uneven story with a weak performance by everybody except probably Ralph Fiennes, i'm really really curious on what Luca Guadagnino want us to feel, what i feel while watching theWell, at least I Am Love have a little bit point, this one, i just have no idea, it's an uneven movie and an uneven story with a weak performance by everybody except probably Ralph Fiennes, i'm really really curious on what Luca Guadagnino want us to feel, what i feel while watching the movie is like i'm not finding or still thinking what reaction am i have to feel, and then the movie just end it, so what? that's the same question that i ask to myself after watching I Am Love and now A Big Splash, it's a story that for him is something interesting, for me is just, So What?, and it's leaving a very unsatisfying feeling, overall A Big Splash is another fail by Luca Guadagnino for me.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

AmadouIraklidis

Oct 2, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie was awful. Actual garbage. It was supposed to be a crime/drama/seductive film, and all it ended up being was an annoyance.

For **** sake, the director thought that focusing on certain things throughout the movie as clues would aid the movie. Newsflash, for that to work, they actually have to pertain to the movie. It's like the cameraman dozed off and zoomed in on something random half a dozen times and they said **** it, keep rolling"

All of the characters were insufferable. Actual misery-pills. None of them could spell "morals" if they tried to. The daughter of the king loser was this completely obnoxious seventeen year old who all she was trying to do was get a rise out of people. I mean, talk about being a complete reject. And we never even figured out her motivation. I seriously thought that she might've not been the neanderthals daughter and some tool in a devious plot to break up the other couple. That's how little the movie wanted anyone to understand what the **** was going on, a mission impossible plot seemed plausible. So stupid.

Then comes the loud mouthed loser himself. This guy did not stop talking. I mean, literally did not stop talking! Between him rambling inane **** and this weirdly passive rockstar who couldn't speak apparently, I bet the script was just him up until he died. Which was the best thing the directors had in the movie. Thank god he died. Speaking of, these characters sucked so much, I didn't even know the guys name until he died! With 30 minutes left in the movie! Then they also had GTA NPC type side characters. Like all the italians there were caricature fan boys, maids, and wide eyed locals. It was surreal, the director could not have chosen a better way to destroy any suspension of disbelief I had. I mean, for no ****ing reason, the police chief just went along with a **** story of seven refugees killing the oaf in chief. He even coached her through it.

Paul was the only half decent character, and we almost never heard him talk. He could have been a cardboard cutout. But then he got seduced by a seventeen year old (statutory rape revealed for no reason and out of no where, why didn't they just stick to the annoying gnat being twenty two?). And his wife, some rockstar, also let her ex gorilla get frisky with her. I guess nobody in this **** of characters ever saw a fence, gate, door, barrier, or wall, because no one had any semblance of boundaries. What was even more unbelievable was that multiple women were attracted to the talking parrot, and that Paul was seduced by the most wannabe emo teenager imaginable. The only explanation for the first is that the women confused their unquechable desire to murder him to get him to shut his yap with arousal in some sort of fundamental attribution error sort of psychology out of some intrinsic failure in human evolution. And for the latter, its that pauls brain works so slowly that not only does he not talk, he also cant conceive of the idea of telling the young brat to put some clothes on. What a thought that would've been.

The only reason this movie get's any points at all is because there was a sensual element to it, which managed to make it interesting for a couple minutes. That's how the movie was marketed, lean into it. Bring more seduction into it. For crying out loud, you literally aren't good at anything else, lean into the easiest part of making a film like this, and what creates the essential drama of these movies. Instead the director thought he was Tarantino. Disgusting. The only ones duped harder than those italian cops was me, I spent 3.99 to watch this high schooler final art project when I could've been watching my beard grow in the mirror. 1/10, never make another movie.… Expand

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