Runtime: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Quick Impressions:
Italy. The 1980s. Flies. Classical statuary. Classic music. Flies. Apricot juice. Ponds. Flies. Bicycles. Peaches. More ponds. Flies. Nosebleeds. Eggs. Stars of David. Flies. Bicycles. White shorts. Converse All Stars? Flies. Snow. Menorahs. The Talking Heads. Flies.
Close your eyes and imagine all of that around you. Now imagine that you’re a teenager experiencing your first love. He looks like Armie Hammer. He enjoys insulting his own work on Heidegger. Though it bores him, he frequently rolls into ponds. He consumes your every waking thought. At a key moment, he whispers to you, “Call me by your name, and I’ll call you by mine.” Then you actually do this. Did I mention that there are flies?
So many flies! I actually found the flies quite distracting. I suppose since the story takes place one summer on a villa full of orchards, the flies are inevitable. (But why are they still there at Hanukkah when everything is buried under snow? It begins to seem suspicious. You start to wonder if all these copious ponds are going to turn to blood or if a plague of locusts is in the forecast.)
To be honest, Call Me By Your Name is everything I expected it would be. I’m glad I finally got to see it. Because I can’t reasonably expect my parents to watch my children multiple times a week, I went to see this alone while my husband treated the kids to a variety of exciting delights all of which could be enjoyed inside our minivan while waiting to pick me up.
I think my favorite part of the movie experience were my garbled efforts to recount the plot to my husband when he came to pick me up. Anybody listening would assume I’d seen an uproarious comedy with no sort of linear order.
Through giggles, my daughter exclaimed in dismay, “I will never be able to see this movie, will I?”
Though I enjoyed the film, as I left the theater, I didn’t see what made it any different from any other European love story. (Every European film I’ve seen about first love has felt strikingly similar to Call Me By Your Name.)
Over time, though, the film has continued to percolate in my brain. I saw it Saturday afternoon, and I’m writing this review very late on Sunday night. I have to say that Call Me By Your Name has a magnificent resonance and may be a masterpiece. It is certainly a very beautiful and very honest film with a superb, Oscar worthy lead performance by Timotée Chalamet.
The Good:
Forget the plot and the characters for a moment.
The atmosphere alone makes the film worth seeing, such a pleasure to take in. It appeals to so many senses all at once, it’s more like an experience than just a movie. It’s like going on an Italy-themed amusement park ride.
It’s not just that the setting is so rich it’s practically palpable. It’s also beautiful. I mean, in most cases (unless you go looking for ugliness), Italy is beautiful. My undergraduate alma mater has a campus just outside Rome. So all these academics wandering around an Italian villa talking about classical art and philosophy naturally made me a bit nostalgic.
The score of this film is also just lovely. If I were giving out Oscars, I’d choose to honor The Shape of Water because its score seems more uniquely paired to the story. But all the music is beautiful in this, nonetheless.
And now back to the plot and characters. It’s a simple story of first love, and the loss that more often than not accompanies first love. Protagonist Elio (beautifully played by Timotée Chalamet) is from a family of French/Italian/American “Jews of discretion” living in a gorgeous Italian villa. (The family’s background seems a bit complicated, and I wish I’d read the book.)
As I said, this feels very much like other French and Italian films I’ve seen about first love. Obviously, the difference is this story is about two men (or a boy and a young man, depending on how you view the teenaged Elio).
Honestly, I’m not sure that the man/man thing matters in terms of the emotions felt. No adolescent ever fully understands love as he falls into it and begins to discover himself and to learn what he desires and to (truly) know another person.
But the fact that it is a homosexual love story does matter quite a bit in the way the relationship progresses and (ultimately) ends. Elio and Oliver can’t just hang out and dance at parties and kiss on the street in the afternoon and kiss goodbye at the train station. And why they can’t becomes kind of a complicated issue because half the cast seems to know what’s going on with them before they do. And Elio’s extremely accepting, nurturing parents have openly gay friends. But it’s trickier than that, and the movie partially explores why they can’t proceed with the openness and ease of a straight couple, though this exploration will probably resonate more with those who have lived through similar experiences.
While watching, I kept thinking of Blue is the Warmest Color, not because of the homosexual themes but because of all the food. Like Adele with her spaghetti, these characters eat all the time–apricots, peaches, eggs–and they make it look so enjoyable. (Armie Hammer with his eggs! I half expected a water monster to rise up from one of those ponds and devour him!) Plus we get all those flies buzzing around. Everything seems so sensuous.
The movie is a treat for anyone who enjoys good acting. Timotée Chalamet is giving a star making performance. He’s wonderful as Elio, a character I found myself increasingly attached to. Armie Hammer is also very good as the inscrutable, aloof Oliver. And I loved Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar as Elio’s parents. Stuhlbarg deserves some Oscar recognition that I tend to doubt he’ll receive. And Casar exudes an energy and grace that makes her so compelling to watch. While Elio was falling in love with Oliver, I was falling for his mother.
This movie also offers quite a lot of sensuous poses accentuating the beauty of the male form, and the love scenes truly seem loving, passionate in a beautiful way. In fact, for a short time early in the film, I was legitimately confused. Was this the kind of movie that showed fields of grain or rivers or trains to signify sex? I kept wondering if I was missing something, so I was relieved when the film got a bit more graphic so I felt sure of what was going on.
Best Scene:
After a pretty momentous afternoon, Elio and Oliver find themselves sitting in dazed silence during a bewildering dinner party where the two guests talk a mile a minute, jumping seamlessly from one topic to the next, never letting anyone else get a word in edgewise.
This scene resonated with me maybe more than any other of the film because it just felt so authentic. Surely in Oliver and Elio’s present state of mind, any conversation, no matter how ordinary, would seem a lot like this.
Best Scene Visually:
Americans have their apple pie, and French Italian American Jews of discretion have their stone fruit.
Ah stone fruit! Where would this movie be without it?
When I was trying to explain this scene to my husband after the movie, I had the hardest time remembering what kind of fruit Elio is eating.
“He’s holding this apricot,” I began, but then I started second guessing myself. “At least, I think it’s an apricot. This family is obsessed with apricots. I mean, in the beginning, they’re all drinking their weight in squashed apricot juice with every meal. It’s like the only thing they drink. They’re obsessed with it. Seriously, it like flows out of the fountains there, this addictive squashed apricot juice. They’re basically apricot vampires.” And then there’s that little etymological test about the word “apricot” near the beginning that drags on so long I was stunned the fairy tale Elio’s parents always read to him wasn’t “The Princess and the Pea.”
But the longer I talked about this scene, the more I realized, “That didn’t actually look anything like an apricot. It was much bigger. Maybe it wad a nectarine. It looked just like a peach only…I don’t think it was a peach.”
It was a peach. I did some online sleuthing just now to confirm the precise identity of this succulent, clefty morsel.
The article I read complained that the scene in the film doesn’t go as far as the one in the book. (I think it goes far enough to get the point across, though.) Then it quoted the “peach” passage from the novel. I have to say the moment does come across rather differently in the film. It’s not that the events are so drastically different. It’s that the novel’s access to the interiority of the characters is so enlightening.
The peach scene is definitely one of the most memorable in the film, an image not soon forgotten. Elio’s initial behavior is pretty hard to misinterpret, but then later, when Oliver comes on the scene, I found the moment much harder to understand. Honestly, I was not quite sure what was happening.
Well, I mean, I knew what actions were happening. I just wasn’t completely sure what was going on with Elio near the end of the scene. I actually interpreted his behavior to mean something rather different than the explanation offered in the novel. This is why people in relationships need to talk to each other. You can’t always look into someone’s eyes and know. Though you may think you’re seeing their truth, it’s far too easy to see your own truth reflected back at you in someone else’s eyes.
Best Action Sequence:
Elio’s day spent looking at his watch is very eventful, but as far as he’s concerned, the day starts at the stroke of midnight. There’s only one person he wants to see.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Timotée Chalamet:
Chalamet’s much lauded lead performance drew me to this film in the first place. Best Actor is really competitive this year (just like it is every other year). James Franco seems to be having some troubles at the moment, which can only help Chalamet’s chances. I think he will get the nomination. He certainly deserves it. He even plays the piano.
We’re with Elio through most of the film. He basically carries the movie, winning our sympathies quickly and becoming increasingly sympathetic and compelling as the film goes on. If you don’t like him, you won’t like the movie, either.
I think Chalamet is fantastic. The character he played in Lady Bird exasperated me endlessly, and Elio is completely different. So we know he’s got range.
The final scene of the film, the scene we watch as the credits roll, is a lovely summation of Chalamet’s performance. If it has worked for you, this scene will seem brilliant. If you don’t like this scene, then you probably don’t like Elio.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Armie Hammer:
That Buzzfeed article throwing Armie Hammer under the bus kind of irritated me. I mean, Hammer is a real person. Lots of people’s acting careers don’t take off as expected. Of course he’s going to keep trying different types of projects and attempt to reinvent his image when possible. And I don’t think he’s able to do that only because he’s a rich white guy who comes from a privileged class. I can think of a lot of performers of all backgrounds who have been given multiple chances to happen or come back. If you don’t give up, you keep trying. And often your opportunities have more to do with your networking skills than your pedigree. Yes white privilege is real, but Armie Hammer is real, too. I think it’s rather cruel to single out one currently living and working person just to make an abstract point.
For what it’s worth, I’ve always liked Hammer as an actor. I think he was especially good in J. Edgar. And he’s good here.
I don’t like the character he’s playing, though. Everybody in town may be drooling over Oliver, but I don’t see it. I find his aloofness extremely off-putting. And his let-me-say-a-few-words-about-Heidegger-and-then-roll-myself-into-a-pond flirting strategy leaves me cold.
I do not like this guy at all. But I do believe him. Hammer makes Oliver very real. He’s strongest in the foot rub in the pantry scene. We see how Oliver’s feelings become strong enough to overwhelm his compunctions.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment, Michael Stuhlbarg:
Elio’s dad’s heart-to-heart with him on the loveseat is terribly sweet and sad and touching, and Stuhlbarg plays it perfectly. I find the, “I don’t think she does,” line extremely unlikely, though. I want to reply, “Ummm…think harder.” I should make my own movie called Umm…I Think She Does. I mean, I did from the preview.
In all seriousness, though, this father/son moment is so touching. Stuhlbarg is good throughout the movie, but if he gets an Oscar nomination it will be because of this scene.
The Negatives:
I don’t like Oliver. I don’t mean that I don’t like Hammer’s performance. The character just leaves me cold. Elio is so amazing. I think he deserves so much better than Oliver.
I don’t know why I don’t like Oliver exactly. Ordinarily I do like people who complain that their essays on Heidegger aren’t good enough and then roll into ponds. (It’s actually some kind of man-made pool, but pond just sounds better.)
I think it’s to his credit that he proceeds cautiously with the very young Elio. But I do think he’s too old for Elio. When I was about Elio’s age, my first boyfriend was about Oliver’s age. He didn’t talk about Heidegger. (My philosophy professor did, but I liked him.) He did talk about The Federalist Papers a bit too much. I honestly can’t remember if he ever rolled into any ponds, though probably not because we didn’t have that many ponds available for rolling into on campus.
But when I became his age, the thought of dating someone my previous age seemed ridiculous to me.
I think Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall had a romance for the ages, though, so I’m very inconsistent.
Still, Elio is only a teenager. This grown man moves into his house, into his bedroom. Then he constantly follows him around, occasionally touching him, trying to massage him. Then he acts shocked when Elio “makes the first move.” (Inconsistently, though, I like Oliver best in that scene at midnight when he finally does give in to his desires.)
I don’t know. I would probably like him more if he looked more like Elio’s mom. Maybe that’s the problem.
My dislike of Oliver did keep me from enjoying the movie as much as I might have. It’s probably unfair, though.
Overall:
Call Me By Your Name is a very beautiful film with a great lead performance by Timotée Chalamet. I may be the wrong audience, though, since I find the idea of switching names off-putting. I’m not sure identity confusion is very romantic. I think Elio should find a guy who calls him Elio and falls in love with the person who he knows he is. I think that would work out better.