helgis-63120 Review of Close

Close (I) (2022)

The fascinating ambiguity is the strength of this film.

[7/10 · 22 February 2023]

The director's intentions were quite clear and he didn't even try to hide them in the marketing of his second feature, but the very young age of his actors, I think, did not allow him to make another "typical" movie with LGBTQ label. Hence much wider appeal, bigger success, all the deserved awards and finally an Oscar nomination. You can read the story as you want really regardless of your own sexual orientation - as the story of two queer kids whose still innocent first love is crashed under the hostile pressure of the outside world, as the story of a platonic childhood bromance hunted, bullied and destroyed by homophobia or you may assume that one of them is straight and the other one not. Simply put, you may try to answer the question who was the chicken and who was the lizard at the end... Everybody praises Eden Dambrine, but I must say that the moment when Gustav De Waele disappeared from the screen for good was the moment when the film lost all his magic for me. The second half as already mentioned is really much worse, not only because it's depressive, rainy and less colorful. It's also indeed quite manipulative. I didn't shed a tear at the end, in fact I think the scene in the forest is the reason Eden lost his Best Actor slot at the Oscar Awards. Beautiful performance, though, coming from the heart, completely uncalculated. "Close" will be discussed for years to come, I think.