In ‘A Bigger Splash,’ Tilda Swinton is a rock star, but you already knew that: 3.5 stars

Tilda Swinton becomes the rock star she always has been in “A Bigger Splash,” a seductive, sneakily malignant chamber piece about passion, heedlessness and the conditional morality of fame.

As Marianne Lane, a Patti Smith-like singer who’s convalescing in Italy after throat surgery, Swinton takes on the bronzed, burnished monumentality of an icon. Having long insisted that cinema lost its expressive power with the onset of talkies, the actress delivers an almost wordless performance here, finding her voice — which never registers above a whisper — only when events threaten to spiral beyond her control.

Marianne and her lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) are leading a quietly idyllic existence on the volcanic island of Pantelleria — sunbathing in the nude at their picture-perfect rental, making love in the swimming pool, slathering each other with mud at an isolated beach — when their Eden is invaded by an old friend: a record producer named Harry who has brought along a pretty young woman named Penelope.

An early shot of a snake slithering across a patio hints at the interlopers’ effect, which turns out to be as destabilizing as the influx of migrants that forms a sobering backdrop to the decadence the film foregrounds so attentively. Portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in a motor-mouthed turn suggesting Ricky Gervais on a coke binge, Harry emerges as a coarse, charming, Mephistophelean figure whose motives remain obscure, even as his role in Marianne and Paul’s lives becomes clearer.

Dakota Johnson, as Penelope, strikes a more languid figure — in keeping with the film’s initial dreamy, sensual tone — even as she lords it over the oldsters with the condescension of the young and nubile. “Cancer?” she asks rudely when Marianne indicates she’s unable to speak. “Oh, right, your career. Cool.”

As “A Bigger Splash” slowly winds to its shocking conclusion, however, she too winds up being full of surprises.

Based on the 1969 thriller “La Piscine” (“The Swimming Pool”), “A Bigger Splash” is directed by Luca Guadagnino, whose 2009 drama “I Am Love” featured Swinton in a similarly toothsome role. As in that film, Guadagnino has draped his muse in lavish swaths of couture, in this case, courtesy of Christian Dior, whose chic sunglasses and shirtwaists Swinton throws on with a practiced off-handedness. Between its gorgeous cast, its beautiful clothes and its dazzling setting, “A Bigger Splash” is pure pleasure to look at, a celebration of pleasure that extends to its music, which blends Rolling Stones cuts and classical pieces to powerful effect.

Punctuating long, indulgent sequences with zooms, pans and startling cuts, Guadagnino expertly conveys the rhythms of a European holiday that ends up proving the adage that nothing gold can stay. The film’s most hedonistically enjoyable sequence —when Harry regales the group with an obviously well-worn story about assisting the Stones on “Emotional Rescue,” ending with a dance in which he moves like Jagger to the song itself — unspools in an uninterrupted take in which the camera observes the ensemble observing Harry, moving from person to person with unhurried interest. Marianne’s obvious relaxation and delight are contagious: Viewers who have come under the film’s spell by that time will feel as if they could stay in that room all day.

But, nothing gold, et cetera. “A Bigger Splash” winds up making good on its title, in a twist that introduces bigger philosophical questions than just the recreational habits of the fabulously rich and famous. The weather isn’t the only thing that changes dramatically in a film that doesn’t entirely succeed in setting up the final punch line, but lands it with chilly irony all the same.

To speak or stay silent? Excess or restraint? Honesty or discretion? It’s clear which is right and which is wrong, but “A Bigger Splash” manages to infuse even the most straightforward questions with vicariously alluring ambiguity.

(At Glenwood Arts, Studio 28, Tivoli.)

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "In ‘A Bigger Splash,’ Tilda Swinton is a rock star, but you already knew that: 3.5 stars."