When the Italian director Lina Wertmuller made Swept Away... by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August way back in 1974 she had a political, social and sexual agenda. With Swept Away, Guy Ritchie's remake, starring his wife Madonna, only one of those elements seems to be present.
Madonna plays rich bitch Amber who's a very unpleasant travelling companion to her millionaire husband (Bruce Greenwood), and their friends on board the luxury yacht they've hired to travel from Greece to Italy. But she's a positive virago as far as deckhand Giuseppe (Adriano Giannini) is concerned. Which is why, when Guiseppe and Amber find themselves stranded on a deserted island and she becomes dependent on his skills, he turns the tables and demands her subjugation, socially and sexually.
You can't help comparing the two films – Adriano Giannini takes over his father's role from the original and certainly he has the eyes but not the intensity of performance that moved Wertmuller's film into an almost manic sadistic realm. And Madonna may be a master of one sort of performance that's an extension of herself but she's not able to create other characters convincingly. Because there's no real political subtext, Guy Ritchie delivers a film so limp it borders on offensive, and worse, it's tedious. And I don't think Madonna will be thanking her husband for his rather unflattering photography of her. This is one of the least interesting films of the year.Comments from David Stratton: Whatever possessed Guy Ritchie to make this travesty? The Lina Wertmuller original was always over-rated, heavy-handed and unattractive, and this is worse. Madonna has never carved a great career as an actress, and she's not very convincing here; Adriano Giannini looks like his old man, but can't save this utterly misguided and extremely boring film – even the love scenes are handled in a coy, unconvincing way.
