Review of Call Me by Your Name (2017) by Marcel A — 13 Dec 2017

Italian director Luca Guadagnino's coming-of-age drama chronicles the unlikely romance between Elio, the teenage son of an American archaeology professor; and Oliver, the college-age assistant hired by the boy's father to live with his family in the Italian countryside during the summer of 1983. Gorgeously shot to take full advantage of its bucolic backdrop, the film will make you want to pack your bags and spend your Christmas break stomping grapes under a blazing Tuscan sun. If I'm being completely honest, though, the movie's overall impact is somewhat muted by its romance novel trappings; populated by upper-class liberals whiling away their summer in a spacious villa, the world in which the introverted Elio (a 17-year-old musical prodigy who reads the classics and speaks three languages) explores his intense attraction to the charming extrovert Oliver is not an instantly relatable one and risks keeping the audience at arm's length. Even more perplexing story-wise, their romance (which the pair take great pains to conceal from others) is not only known by Elio's father but quiely sanctioned by him. [Credit Michael Stuhlbarg with somehow selling this climatic revelation, along with the fatherly advice that comes with it - in a single scene, he radiates the level of compassion and unconditional love one hopes is awaiting every closeted teen struggling to come out.].

Removing the usual family tension you'd expect from such a coupling (especially one set in the early 1980's) strains plausibility, but it also allows the film to focus its attention squarely on the pair's unfolding romance, and it's largely on the strength of its two lead actors that the movie achieves near-greatness. Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer deliver full-throated, deeply affecting performances that capture every stage of their characters' brief but intense bond, from the confusing anxiety that comes with unrequited love to the dizzying exhilation of its consummation to the profound grief that accompanies its end. Every awkward exchange, every stolen glance, every power shift in their evolving relationship will strongly resonate with viewers regardless of sexual identity or social background. Elio and Oliver's romance may exist mostly in a bubble, but the feelings they inspire in both each other and the audience couldn't be more real.