'I Am Love' is thrilling

I Am Love is a bold and thrilling masterpiece, the introduction of a major talent to the world's stage.

Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton) is a Russian exile living the good life in Milan, where she devotes her time to her opulently wealthy Italian husband and their three impossibly beautiful grown children.

Emma's days are filled with planning lavish dinner parties at the family's villa and overseeing the staff that keeps the mansion churning. Initially, she seems content and fulfilled. Then things happen: Emma accidentally reads a letter written by her daughter, who is studying art in London and has fallen for another woman. Emma is shaken by the news.

Then Emma meets her son's best friend, a chef preparing to open a restaurant. He prepares a meal for her and when she eats it, her reaction is nothing less than orgasmic.

To say that Emma is smitten by the young cook doesn't really describe her obsession. Soon, she has begun doing the unthinkable, sneaking away to the man's house, cutting her elegantly coiffed hair short and becoming increasingly erratic. The affair awakens something in Emma, but her fulfillment comes at a great price. The title becomes an ominous declaration: With love comes joy, but also doom.

I Am Love isn't perfect, but what love is, really?