Movie Review: "Call Me by Your Name" Is So Absorbing, You’ll Want to Live Inside of It

Luca Guadagnino’s films are so tangible, you could live inside of them, and you’d be happy to stay there.

In Call Me by Your Name, music from a car-stereo echoes off a cobblestone street; lips make smacking noises against a moist peach; sunlight bounces off the mildly-roiling water of a rock pool.

These sights and sounds alone don’t make a movie, but they keep the memory of it alive, like an old love. I often rely on Wikipedia to remind me of plot points from a DC Comics flick I saw hours ago, yet if I ever hear Sufjan Stevens’ gorgeous “Mystery of Love”, I’ll be transported to the scene of our lead lovers hiking in gleeful privacy as fog descends over the Italian mountainside.

Call Me By Your Name is an adaptation of André Aciman’s beloved 2007 novel of the same, ahem, name. (How widely loved is it? Taylor Swift saw fit to reference it not once but twice on Reputation, in between flamings.)

It stars Timothée Chalamet as Elio, a 17-year-old Italian-American living in Northern Italy with his family. His father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an academic, takes in a flirty 24-year-old American student named Oliver (Armie Hammer) for the summer, and the two young men spark up a contentious relationship. As the weeks roll on, Elio comes to better understand and accept his fixation on Oliver, as well as his sexuality, and begins inviting his come-ons. He doesn’t realise learning to accept heartbreak will be a harder test.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better trio of lead male performances from this past year. Chalamet is impetuous and vulnerable without being fragile; Hammer is magnetic, both on the dance floor and by the pool; and Stuhlbarg gets the final word with a closing monologue that devastates, and which he delivers with poise, wisdom and pain. Spare a thought for the sweet Esther Garrel too. She plays Marzia, a young girl Elio leads along, just so he can prove something to himself. And here I am, talking about these people as if they were real. I could have sworn they were.

Call Me by Your Name is not an uncomplicated love story. The age gap, for instance, may rankle some viewers. Keep in mind the actors are well and truly older than their characters, and that the film doesn’t depict anything illegal. Also keep in mind that movies are not (always) morality plays, and Call Me by Your Name is exploring the nature of shame in romantic relationships (particularly gay relationships, in its era, the 1980s). What do we make of Oliver’s anguished expression after he finally kisses Elio? And what of the extended shot of Elio, staring into the crackling fireplace, as the closing credits roll? Is it their age, their sexuality, their secrets, or their prospects for the future that gives them pause?

Call Me by Your Name tells a very specific story. However, Guadagnino and his performers leave enough space in James Ivory’s screenplay for the viewers to see themselves. Many will do so happily, hoping to spend a summer in the sun-drenched Italian estate; to visit the lake, play volleyball, eat mouthwatering Italian food and dance at outdoor discos blaring The Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way”. It is an easy life, made difficult by the romantic forces and urges outside of the characters’ control. It’s also something... more. When characters describe Elio and Oliver’s “friendship”, they’re not merely dancing around the details. Those two people have something special, captured beautifully now on celluloid.

4/5

In cinemas Boxing Day. Rated M for sex scenes, nudity and coarse language.