REVIEW: Call Me by Your Name

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
2017 Romance Drama
2 hours 12 minutes
From Sony Pictures Classics

Starring
Armie Hammer
Timothée Chamalet
Michael Stuhlbarg

It's a film that is best enjoyed if one just sits back and allows it to wash over you.  Set in northern Italy in 1983 and told in a leisurely fashion, it pulls one into the glow of the romance of a 17-year old teenage boy with his father's 24-year old male research assistant with a sensuality and a transcendence that's hard to deny.  Once it's done with what it sets out to do, it doesn't let go and even at its length, I didn't want it to end.

It doesn't hurt that we get a sun-kissed look at the splendors of Italy with the pair involved in alfresco meals, bike rides, hikes and swims.  The romance proceeds tentatively as neither the boy Elio nor Oliver are quite sure what to do with their burgeoning feelings.  They want to be direct but are ill-at-ease with directness.  It is, of course, a coming of age story but one that deals with desire at the cost of apprehension.  

An interesting and very warm twist to the story is that Oliver lives with the family (his room is separated from Elio's by a shared bathroom).  In addition to the burgeoning sexuality, it would not be wrong to say that story also focuses on family.  It's unusual for a film on gay life to not include adversarial characters but happily there are none.  There wouldn't be a gay person in the world who wouldn't want to have parents like Elio's.  If they are a dream, don't wake me.  The film's most poignant scene, one of triumphant spirit, is between Elio and his father sitting on a sofa together.  Pay close attention... it's a life lesson.

For those curious about the sex scenes, they are neither gratuitous nor done to stimulate anyone's libido, although there is a certain eroticism.  There's some non-frontal nudity but I would call most of the scenes more of a romantic nature than sexual.  Those that are more sexual are done in darkness or shadows.   

Undoubtedly one of the great blessings of the film is that it is based on a novel by a writer, André Aciman, who, if he is not gay  certainly has a great sensitivity about gay life.   It was adapted for the screen by the great writer (and director) James Ivory, who along with his partner, producer Ismael Merchant, brought us some of the most beautifully realized films of the 1980's and 1990's.  Director Luca Guadagnino, also gay, is a cinema sensualist who regarded this as a passion project and it certainly shows.  Lovers or future lovers of this film would be advised to check out some of the interviews involving the principals of this film on You Tube.  Fun stuff.

This is such an Italian film... a look at the credits leave no doubt about that.  Italian and French is also spoken a great deal (along with English) and there is liberal use of subtitles.  And yet, all three actors listed here are Americans.  Interestingly, director Guadagnino says he doesn't like working with Italian actors. 

Awards buzz is strong for Chamalet as well it should be.  This is a tour-de-force of acting, a particularly exciting thing to realize about one so young.  He runs over a road map of emotions, expressed with so much heart in closeup as the credits roll at the end.  

Hammer, too, is flawless.  Elio is without question attracted to his handsomeness but Oliver's flirtatiousness and carefree ways are at first another matter.  There is a dance to the early part of their relationship because Oliver waits for Elio to make the first move. A large part of the success of the film is the undeniable chemistry between these two.

I know gay acceptance has come a long way and actors are more and more willing to take gay roles.  I still recall a time when actors, gay or straight, would be unwilling to play gay parts for fear it would mean the death knell to their careers.  That is not so much the case anymore, although I still think there's largely a point of view that if it's a primary gay role in a big film, it's usually played  by an actor about whom there's no question that he's straight.  

This role comes right at the start of Chamalet's career and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him that there's no backlash.  Hammer, though he's been around for awhile, has still to hit his stride while noting that this is his second gay role (he played Clyde Tolson to Leo DiCaprio's J. Edgar).  Maybe my concern is for nothing...

Stuhlbarg, whom I just found to be so good in The Shape of Water, was a brilliant choice for Elio's father and again, he is at the center of the best scene in the film.

It was filmed in Lombardia, not far from where Guadagnino lives.  The location certainly added to the spell of the film. 

I confess that I would not have cared as much for the movie had it concentrated on an adult man-teenage girl plot so I accept that straight folks may not care for it as much as I have.  That being said, I am amazed how critics have heaped such unabashed praise on it.  

There is already a sequel in the planning stages.  I believe this would be a first for a gay-themed movie.  Both lead actors have said they would jump at the chance to have another go with Elio and Oliver.  



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