by MATTHEW HAYS

One can certainly see the allure of remaking Swept Away… by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August, Lina Wertmuller’s ’75 near-classic sex-and-class comedy. The film depicted a rich and selfish woman stranded on a tropical island with her rugged lower-class manservant, their roles switched almost immediately upon being stranded. The film allowed Wertmuller to delve into all sorts of tricky territory, in particular gender relations and class difference.

In Guy Ritchie’s remake, the film plays out as bizarre power struggle between the genders, but in this case in more ways than one. While Madonna, playing a wealthy capitalist-philosophy-spouting heiress bitch, is foil to Adriano Giannini (son of the star of the original film), it’s hard not to ponder the celebrity conspiracy theory behind the movie’s making. Madonna, of course, has long wanted to create credibility for herself as an actor, not merely a pop star. Some dared to speculate that she married Ritchie, the maverick stud behind Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, to win a role in one of his films somewhere down the line.

Here she is, in what I would call a fairly entertaining little movie. Though Swept Away can’t really hold a candle to the original, I thought this one had some nice moments of romance between Madonna and Giannini (though it’s unclear whether my feeling has to do with the acting pair’s talents or my overriding, long term fantasy of getting shipwrecked with an Italian stud). The crowd at the avant-premiere didn’t seem to share my opinion, hooting and hissing through much of the screening. Madonna, it seems, has an uphill battle in terms of being taken seriously by the moviegoing public.

Where Madonna seems to have the most trouble is in the heartwrenching moments, when she’s professing her love and crying. But by my estimate, Ritchie has taken this artifice into account and has stylized this part of his film around her performance. It creates an unusual tension in their collaboration, one which begs the question: is Ritchie himself taking Madonna seriously as an actor? :

Swept Away opens Friday, Oct. 11

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