ITALIAN filmmaker Luca Guadagnino perseveres bravely with David Kajganich’s screenplay that takes off when an unexpected call to filmmaker Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) holidaying in Sicily with rock star Marianne (Tilda Swinton) recovering from throat surgery, announces that music producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) is about to arrive. 

Harry, an over-pumped ego, garrulous to more than a fault, dominating the conversation and the minutiae of each day’s program, is a troubled soul seeking an emotional panacea, which turns out to be Marianne, whom he claims to have given to Paul six years earlier. Marianne is not a chattel for exchange between men and her love for Paul is almost rock solid (a knee-trembler does intrude, but only one and that less-than-satisfying).

“A Bigger Splash” is that dramatic staple, the eternal triangle, here acquiring a fourth apex with the arrival of Penelope (Dakota Johnson) Harry’s nubile daughter of as yet unrevealed age whom Harry claims to have only recently met (improbable, but that should worry nobody).

So why have I dumped on the screenplay after those four stars? The offsets have merit. Tilda Swinton, in her second film with Guadagnino, is the main reason. Luminously beautiful, a character actress with few equals, the screen glows most brightly when she is in shot. With or without clothes, all four principal players give the screenplay their best, which perhaps is better than it deserves.

The Sicilian landscapes are craggily beautiful. An up-beat denouement involving the local Carabinieri commandant says more than meets the eye.

At Palace Electric