Amber Leighton, a wealthy, spoiled socialite wife of a millionaire Tony Leighton, joins two other couples on a private cruise from Italy to Greece. Amber develops an instant and intense dislike for Giuseppe, a deckhand, and insults him mercilessly throughout the trip. During the trip, she insists on being taken out on a dinghy for a lark, overruling Giuseppe's warnings about an oncoming storm.
During their dinghy trip, Amber berates Giuseppe incessantly, which only intensifies once they run out of gas. Through a series of mishaps, Amber damages the dinghy and they end up washing ashore on a deserted island.
On the island, Giuseppe gains the upper hand in their interactions due to his survival skills. As the roles reverse, Giuseppe becomes more dominant in his treatment of Amber, while she concurrently becomes more submissive and cowering. Their relationship evolves into intimacy.
Amber realises that she has become very happy on the island with Giuseppe and when she notices a boat anchored in the bay, she hides to avoid their being rescued.
Eventually, the two are rescued and return to their normal lives. Giuseppe attempts to reach out to Amber, to rekindle their relationship, but his messages receive no reply. Giuseppe believes that Amber has rejected him, and is despondent. However, it is revealed at the end that his letters have been intercepted by Amber's millionaire husband Tony, who ensures that Amber never sees them or Giuseppe again.
On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 5% rating, based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 2.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Muddled and lacking the political context of the original, Swept Away offers further proof that Madonna can't act."[6]Metacritic reports an 18 out of 100 rating, based on 27 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[7]
Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, who called the original Swept Away such an "absorbing movie" that he bestowed a 4-out-of-4 star rating,[8] gave the remake only 1 star.[9] According to Ebert, despite Ritchie's relatively faithful adaptation, the original Swept Away was "incomparably superior," and the remake's fatal flaw was the "utterly missing" vitality or emotional resonance of the main characters. Additionally, wrote Ebert, Madonna's character "starts out so hateful that she can never really turn it around" and gain any redemption or believable change. Similarly, A.O. Scott[10] of The New York Times wrote, "In her concerts, music videos and recordings, Madonna has often been a mesmerizing performer, but she is still not much of an actress. Striking a pose is not the same as embodying a person, and a role like this one requires the surrender of emotional control, something Madonna seems constitutionally unable to achieve." In his otherwise negative review of the film, Slant Magazine critic Ed Gonzalez said: "Madonna gives her best performance since Abel Ferrara had her beaten to a pulp in his Dangerous Game."[11]
"The way critics take it out on me now is to have a go at anything me and Guy do together," Madonna remarked about the negative critical reaction. "Everyone in England has slagged it off without having seen it. Isn't that beautiful? Don't you think that's absurd? But I think the knives were going to come out for Guy anyway, even if he hadn't ended up with me. He had too much success with his firsttwo films. That's how the media is: eventually they have to pull you down."[12]
Box office
Swept Away grossed $598,645 in the United States and around $437,875 from foreign territories for a worldwide total of $1,036,520.[3]
The film was nominated for Worst Screenplay (written by Ritchie), and Gianinni for Worst Actor. It was the first to win both Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel.
The score was composed by Michel Colombier, and it is mostly his work that is featured on the 12-track soundtrack album. The soundtrack also contains several songs by other artists. "Come-On-a-My-House", sung by Della Reese, is the only one featured on the album.[13]