2017 | Dir. Luca Guadagnino | 132 Minutes
"Right now, there's sorrow, pain. Don't kill it and with it the joy you've felt."
In the summer of 1983 in the Italian countryside, Elio, the teenage son of an archaeology professor falls in love with Oliver, a graduate student spending the summer with Elio's family. Fearing the social stigma against homosexuality of the time, they carry one their relationship in secret. Elio suffers the biggest emotional loss of his young life as Oliver returns home at the end of the summer.
Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of André Aciman's 2007 novel depicts love, longing, sexuality, heartbreak, and loss through an honest lens that is never judgmental and never veers into exploitation. Beautifully shot in Crema, Lombardy in northern Italy, the film affectively creates an ephemeral idyllic setting both visually and emotionally. Where the film fails to be compelling at certain points is in its lack of dramatic stakes. While there is palpable emotional tension throughout the picture, there isn't much narrative tension to speak of as Oliver's return home is inevitable.
Timothée Chalamet carries the film with a heartfelt and delicate performance as Elio. Equal parts spirited and vulnerable, Chalamet impressively evokes the genuine and often-times confusing emotions of first love. Perpetual second-string actor Armie Hammer is serviceable but ultimately unremarkable as Oliver. Young actress Esther Garrel is adorable in a small but notable part as Elio's jilted girlfriend Marzia. As Elio's father, Michael Stuhlbarg is entertaining as a passionate academic, and ultimately a crucial player in the defining scene of the feature in which the professor reveals to Elio his knowledge and support of the relationship shared between Elio and Oliver.
Call Me By Your Name is a touchingly earnest examination of fleeting romance and youth. For what its worth, the picture is nearly devoid of dramatic tension. The tragedy of this love story, as in all stories of young love, is that the central relationship was never meant to last but there is a multitude of lessons to be learned from it.
FRAGMENTS
- The final shot of the film is of Elio crying in front of a fireplace as Sufjan Stevens' "Visions of Gideon," which was specifically written for the film, plays and the end credits roll -- this sequence absolutely destroyed me
- Timothée Chalamet appears in two Best Picture Oscar Nominees that were released in 2017: this film and Lady Bird
- Michael Stuhlbarg appears in three Best Picture Oscar Nominees that were released in 2017: this film, The Post, and The Shape of Water
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Michael Stuhlbarg (Nicodemus West in Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
