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SWEPT AWAY Send This Review to a Friend
Remakes are a bad idea most of the time, and "Swept Away," starring Madonna, is a special turkey. Virtually everything that gave a certain cachet to Italian director Lina Wertmüller's 1974 original, released in the United States as "Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August," is missing from director Guy Ritchie's version. It isn't only the title that's skimpier.
Wertmüller's playful film, whatever one thought of it, was rich in using a battle of the sexes to make observations about the state of men and women--the sexual politics involved--and that was placed in the context of class warfare. Her concepts were what drove the film. In addition, she had the benefit of the beautiful Mariangela Melato and the masterly Giancarlo Giannini as the spoiled rich woman and the earthy working-class seaman.
There is some recognition of class differences here, but it is comparative blip in the screenplay for the film, which lacks Wertmüller's artistry and sophistication. Madonna portrays the well-heeled wife Amber as so mean-spirited, bitchy and nasty on the yacht sailing the Mediterranean that it is painful to watch her. She also looks terrible in this mode. There is none of the amusement that could be found in watching Wertmüller's sparing partners. Adriano Giannini as Giuseppe, while nowhere near the caliber of his father Giancarlo, is not bad in his role. But he is playing against lead.
When he browbeats Amber after they are marooned on an island and manhandles her as if he were taming a wild beast until she succumbs to his greater force, the sexual chemistry isn't there. It seems non-existent no matter how much love is professed in the ensuing scenes as the two supposedly fall for each other. In her softer moments Madonna at least looks better. But that doesn't do anything for her acting.
Madonna gets to shake around a in a fantasy singing scene, but that comes across more as an intrusion just to show her off in a more familiar guise. Despite the effort to work up some emotion at the end, a clinker is a clinker is a clinker. Even the sea and islands don't have the luster that should be there. A Screen Gems release.
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