Movie Review

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A BIGGER SPLASH

Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Written by David Kajganich, based on a novel by Alain Page.

Starring Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson. At Boston Comon, Coolidge Corner, Kendall Square. 124 minutes. R (graphic nudity, some strong sexual content, language, brief drug use). In English and Italian, with subtitles.

Form battles content to an eerily pleasurable draw in “A Bigger Splash,’’ a stylish four-hander set among the rich and the hip. Director Luca Guadagnino was last seen in these parts with “I Am Love’’ (2009), a gorgeously overripe melodrama about a married woman (Tilda Swinton) who falls for a hot young chef; the film was a feast for the eyes, ears, stomach, and soul. The new movie keeps the sensuality levels high while introducing notes of panic and discord. Something’s off in the rémoulade this time, and the living is queasy.

Swinton is back as the director’s muse, playing a world-famous rock star named Marianne Lane whose stadium act, what little we see in flashbacks, positions her on the Bowie to Gaga continuum. When “A Bigger Splash’’ opens, she’s hiding out on the sun-baked island of Pantelleria, between Sicily and Tunisia. Nodes on her vocal cords have rendered her mostly mute, but she’s content in the silence and in the protective company of her filmmaker boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts, the Belgian hunk of “Far From the Madding Crowd’’ and “The Danish Girl’’). The movie paints a luxurious portrait of paradise tilting on the edge of hedonism.

Every paradise needs a snake, and here comes Harry, Marianne’s one-time producer and former lover. That the character is played by Ralph Fiennes is good news for us all; even better, it’s a Fiennes we haven’t met before, hyperactive, noodgy, exasperating, lovable. One of those men who’s the life of the party even when the party should have been over hours ago. Harry crashes the couple’s hideaway villa along with Penelope (Dakota Johnson), a grown daughter he barely knows. At least, he says she’s his daughter. They seem . . . close.

Most filmmakers announce the genre in which they’re working at the start and let the audience be guided by its own narrative assumptions. The short-term weakness and long-term strength of Guadagnino’s movies is that he refuses to play that way, and you watch “A Bigger Splash’’ mesmerized by its creamy surfaces and mildly antsy as to what, exactly, is going on. Slowly, the interrelationships of the leads acquire a curious four-way tension: Penelope vamping the rock-solid Paul, Harry badgering Marianne about their wild past, Marianne turned on by Harry but needing Paul, Paul turned on by Marianne and Penelope and needing a drink. At a certain point, you realize the whole situation’s about to blow.

The performances are expert. Johnson redeems herself from “50 Shades of Grey’’ and may remind you of her mother, Melanie Griffith, way back in 1975’s “Night Moves.’’ Even with only half her instrument at her command, Swinton holds the screen; when Marianne has to speak, it’s in an awful croak that puts entire scenes on edge. Guadagnino sends his camera swooning this way and that, high up in the air and in sudden jagged close-ups, and he piles the soundtrack with off-kilter gems like Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into the Fire’’ and Popol Vuh’s droning score for “Aguirre: The Wrath of God.’’ The Rolling Stones’ “Emotional Rescue’’ plays a big part here, but it’s not clear who, if anyone, will be coming out alive.

If you know your classic Euro-chic cinema, you may recognize “A Bigger Splash’’ as a remake of 1969’s “La Piscine,’’ which starred Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, and a young Jane Birkin as the daughter. (Both films are based on a novel by Alain Page.) And as the new movie’s tendrils start wrapping more tightly in the final act, you may detect a distinct whiff of Patricia Highsmith (“The Talented Mr. Ripley’’) in the acrid gamesmanship, sudden acts of violence, official investigations, and all-encompassing guilt.

Or maybe not. An incongruously lighthearted wrap-up followed by peppy animated end credits suggest the whole thing’s a lark and that perhaps Guadagnino doesn’t know what he’s doing. At the very least, he and his cast got a sybaritic vacation out of “A Bigger Splash,’’ and so will you.

??? A BIGGER SPLASH

Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Written by David Kajganich, based on a novel by Alain Page. Starring Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson. At Boston Comon, Coolidge Corner, Kendall Square. 124 minutes. R (graphic nudity, some strong sexual content, language, brief drug use). In English and Italian, with subtitles.

Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com.