When Oliver met Elio
Call Me By Your Name (RP13)
131 mins ★★★★★
The perfect setting (a villa in Northern Italy), perfect writing (screenplay by James Ivory of Merchant Ivory fame, who is nearly 90 and seems to be reentering the film business after a long absence) and perfect performances, from the whole cast, but notably its two male leads – Call Me By Your Name can only be described as a perfect film.
Oliver, an American academic (The Social Network’s Armie Hammer), arrives for a six-week sojourn at the country home of his one-time professor, and immediately inveigles himself into the relaxed, bohemian family. Days are spent riding bikes into town and lazing with books by the pool in the baking sunshine. Oliver’s gaze soon falls on the teenage son, Elio, whose intention to spend the summer transposing classical music and kissing girls is upended as the lad gradually finds his head turned. Their age difference turns out neither to discomfort nor matter, and a touching and at times intense friendship develops.
Hammer is superb but the revelation is a stunningly mature performance from Timothee Chalamet (it turns out the President’s bratty son from Homeland is an accomplished linguist and musician. If he doesn’t win an Oscar for this, it’ll be my final nail in Hollywood’s coffin). Their courtship is keenly observed and steeped in realism, from its tentative first steps with both men peacocking (with attractive local women) in front of the other, testing the waters as feelings grow.
Director Luca Guadagnino made the exquisite I Am Love and 2015’s wonderful A Bigger Splash, also overthe-top in its narrative, but especially notable for scenes in which Ralph Fiennes really lets his hair down. Call Me By Your Name has all the intensity and eroticism of its forebears, but never crosses the line into hysteria. Instead it hammers us with feather light emotion and achingly restrained longing that is universally affecting.
Set in 1983, the languid heat of Italy is felt to full effect, with a terrific 80s soundtrack and beautifully observed tiny details (a swimsuit slung on a bathroom faucet; a watch laid gently on a bedside table) and the obligatory shots of delicious food being prepared to eat al fresco. The photography is stunning – the setting helps, of course – but even aside from this, the gliding camerawork of one long take enables proper theatre and truthful acting which underlies the expertly wrought sexual tension.
Young love, gay love – one or the other or both, we’ve all experienced it or desired it. Call Me By Your Name is a film that touches everyone. Sensational. – Sarah Watt