Review of Call Me by Your Name (2017) by Wayne K — 21 Jan 2018

A film which arrived with all the hype in the world and a plethora of gushing reviews, and it's not hard to see why. Beautiful to look at, a simple story which moves at a snail's pace, an overlong runtime and characters who almost look like they care about what is going on around then.

It's not a rewarding experience, nor is it emotionally involving. There's a peculiar flippancy to the proceedings, with some scenes which just stop with no resolution, like they were cut off early.

Hammer and Chalamet are good but not remarkable, and their romance never comes alive because their characters never do. The director often seems more interested in capturing beautiful nature scenes than forming the character arcs, like he's obtaining footage for Natural World, or he's a landscape scout for the next Terrence Malick picture.

As a gay love story, it lacks the fraught emotionality of Brokeback Mountain or the raw passion of Blue Is The Warmest Colour. And as a simple romance, it's leads are too bland and the writing too unfocused to make us care.

There's plenty of cinematic love stories which are sweeter, more earnest and much more involving. Call Me By Your Name is just dull.