Certificate: 12A (suicide references, homophobia, upsetting scenes). Running Time: 104 mins. UK Distributor: Mubi
WHO’S IN IT?
Eden Dambrine, Gustav de Waele, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens, Marc Weiss, Igor van Dessel, Léon Bataille
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Lukas Dhont (director, writer), Angelo Tijssens (writer), Michiel Dhont, Dirk Impens and Michel Saint-Jean (producers), Valentin Hadjadj (composer), Frank van den Eeden (cinematographer), Alain Dessauvage (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Two young boys (Dambrine and Waele) who share an intimate bond are tragically drawn apart…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON CLOSE?
Childhood is a fascinating time in our lives. With no worries, no fears, and little (if any) sense of what is right and wrong, there is every opportunity to just see life though an innocent prism without thinking about anything else. But there comes a time when even children have to start facing reality, as they experience some harsh facts about the world they live in as their social skills and mental capacities develop, which wipes away any last trace of innocence they may have.
Close, from Belgian director and co-writer Lukas Dhont, hones in on this specific time in childhood, and finds a raw heap of emotion straight at its heart-breaking centre which often makes for some devastating drama.
The film opens right at the tail-end of summer, as young boys Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav de Waele) are more than making the most of their time together. They’re the best of friends, running together through poppy fields while their imaginations run wild, and sleeping comfortably in the same bed during frequent sleepovers at Rémi’s house. When the time comes for them to head back to school, though, their unusually close friendship is commented on by their peers, which triggers in Léo a self-awareness that he perhaps never had before, and begins shunning Rémi as he begins to broaden his friend group, sign up for the school’s hockey team, and participate in other activities that he feels accentuates his questioned masculinity. Léo’s actions, however, end up having severe consequences, though, and very suddenly the two friends are torn apart forever by utterly tragic circumstances.
The most striking thing about Dhont’s film almost right away is its carefully composed vision of what it is like to see the world during those precious final few days of pure childhood. Dhont, along with co-writer Angelo Tijssens and cinematographer Frank van den Eeden, initially introduces the audience to a pleasant and gentle world that is rich with innocence and unconditional love, because it is the only world that Léo and Rémi have ever known up to this point, and it is immediately clear through the filmmaking that these boys, and their inseparable bond with each other, are all that truly matters. There are beautiful shots of the Belgian countryside as our young protagonists run, cycle, and play together through the luscious colours that make up the fields, gardens, and even their bedrooms, which serve as a soothing filter for these fresh-eyed perspectives. In more intimate moments, we see the pure unadulterated love in their eyes as one admires the musical skills of the other as they play the oboe in a youth orchestra, and gently rest their bodies next to each other as they sleep, like lifelong romantic partners still in their honeymoon phase.
These details help make the eventual bursting of that happiness bubble all the more impactful and saddening. The looks of concern when Léo is faced with questions about his sexuality, as a result of both his public affection towards Rémi and some homophobic playground taunts, are devastating in their clear portrayal of any remaining innocence being scrubbed away in real time. One must commend young Eden Dambrine – making his acting debut here, after being personally scouted by Dhont during a chance encounter on a train – for his natural ability to express a wide range of emotions, from joy to guilt to embarrassment and beyond, without making them feel so obvious whenever we observe him, a trait that it put to strong use as we see his character grow increasingly concerned with his social ranking than what should matter a lot more. Léo’s conformity to a generally accepted type of masculinity, one that has little time for the kind of close intimacy that he and Rémi had been sharing, also has an effect on the way in which Dhont and van den Eeden shoot the film, with many of the bright colours starting to look more muted by the second, and when tragedy soon strikes there is almost a complete removal of the gloss that helps those earlier scenes shine.
Said tragedy forms the film’s second half, which I honestly have more mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it’s hard to deny the sheer emotional power that Dhont and his on-screen performers, particularly Dambrine and Émilie Dequenne as one of the boy’s mothers, bring to the unfolding events that occur, making it hard to not feel something as the film crawls steadily to a devastating breakdown. However, there are times when the overwhelming emotion feels like way too much all at once, particularly when it is depicting issues that aren’t that much different from your typical Afterschool Special, and sometimes are even handled using similar conventions. That isn’t to say that the themes and subjects which Close focuses on during this second half, particularly ones that affect emotionally vulnerable young boys like our two leads, are in any way not worth discussing, because they most certainly are. That being said, I feel that the key is to set a balance between the mind and the heart, so that mature and thoughtful debates can take place without leaning too hard into how unbelievably upsetting the topic at hand can be, and Close does sometimes struggle to find that balance as it clearly favours the heavy, borderline manipulative emotion over any real sense of discussion.
While it does let the heartbreak occasionally overcloud the deeper and more resonant themes, Close manages to portray a pivotal time in a child’s life with resounding beauty and equally powerful devastation. Even when you can tell that it’s not working quite as well as it perhaps should, you’re still left in a deeply emotional state, at once nostalgic for a time in your life when the world wasn’t so big and scary and filled with judgement, but also weary of that moment when any and all sense of innocence was lost forever. It’s a fascinating coming-of-age story where the main antagonist is, it seems, the part where one comes of age.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Close is an emotional and beautifully realised portrayal of childhood friendship and the devastating consequences of leaving that behind, which director Lukas Dhont establishes through stunningly glossy filmmaking and some excellent performances, particularly by young newcomer Eden Dambrine, but a much more emotional second half feels more concerned with manipulation than discussing many of the film’s concerning topics.
Close will be released in cinemas nationwide on Friday 3rd March 2023 – click here to find a screening near you!
It will be available to stream exclusively on Mubi from Friday 21st April 2023.
