Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Close

Part of my coverage of the 58th Chicago International Film Festival.


CLOSE   ***1/2

Lukas Dhont
2022























IDEA:  A tragedy ruptures the intimate friendship between young Belgian teens Leo and Remi.



BLURB:  Emotions in childhood are tricky things; there’s perhaps no other time in life when they’re simultaneously so intensely felt and so difficult to verbally communicate. It’s in this inchoate, inarticulate space where Close locates its drama and grows its tragedy. The cruel irony is that Leo and Remi don’t need to define their relationship at all; their friendship is a bond that defies explanation, and one that only comes apart when previously unacknowledged gender mores and the self-image sensitivities of adolescence are made conscious. One of the canny achievements of Close is how it evokes a tumult of shame, envy, anger, and grief in a way that’s rooted in the headspace of subjects for whom those feelings are unevenly legible. Rather than attempt to explicate or psychoanalyze, Dhont simply observes patiently and quietly, his camera - often lingering in limpid closeup - picking up all the slight variations in the boys’ dispositions. Leo’s reticence of speech in particular forces us to lean in closer, to scrutinize his countenance and behavior and reflect on how those things may or may not belie what he’s thinking at any given moment. This inquisitive orientation also holds true for Remi’s mother Sophie (a superb Émilie Dequenne), suggesting how adults might not always be so much more proficient than their children in matters of emotional fluency. Dhont impressively avoids the clichés one would expect to populate a premise tailor-made for mawkish tear-wringing. He remains honest and relatively unsentimental in his dramatization of the slow, lurching, and frequently delayed shockwaves that follow a seismic personal disruption. The potency of Close, ultimately, rests on the shoulders of its sensational young duo Gustav de Waele and Eden Dambrine. Like the film itself, they pack huge emotions into a small package, with or without words.

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