Directed By Lukas Dhont

Starring – Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Emilie Dequenne

The Plot – Leo (Dambrine) and Remi (De Waele) are two thirteen-year-old best friends, whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart. Dhont’s second film is an emotionally transformative and unforgettable portrait of the intersection of friendship and love, identity and independence, and heartbreak and healing.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide and brief strong adult language

Close | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube

POSITIVES

This film’s prominence lives and breathes on the friendship dynamic of Leo and Remi, which not only feels enriched with the kind of believability and chemistry from a duo of spectacular performances in Dambrine and De Waele, but also closely stitches itself towards romanticism without the traits that we as a society use to incorrectly define the term. At times, their interactions make them feel like the only people existing in their world, with intimate cinematography from Frank van den Eeden balancing a claustrophobia factor in depiction that he uses to zero in on the physicality of their bond, as well as glowing radiance in lighting used to give the film gentle textures in canvas that are often used in romantic drama’s. So of course, the only thing that could come between them is when they allow the outside world inside, with the immature assumptions and dramatically diverse interactions of these outsiders serving as the anti-adhesive to their once peaceful existence, with hefty layers of drama that we as an audience feel remarkably, despite their time together minimally condensed to the confines of the opening act. Because of such, Dhont seamlessly triggers the exhillaration and innocence of childhood’s most defining characteristics, with frolics through endless flower fields and sleepless sleepovers triggering a pungent nostalgia that all audiences can relate to and appreciate, without taking the focus off of where it rightfully should be: the child actors themselves. When I say Dambrine is a star in the making, it should be taken with complete belief, as this kid effortlessly supplants an emotional depth and scene-stealing transparancy to Leo that is decades ahead of his inexperience as an actor, and when combined with the aforementioned perfection in chemistry that he shares with Gustav de Waele, supplanting his own waves of internal anxiety, breathes consciousness into the integrity of these dual protagonists, in turn allowing them to transcend their fictional enveloping into living, breathing people, before our very eyes. But none of this would matter without the dimensions of the screenplay, also co-written by Dhont, taking us on a journey with these characters that triggers a roller-coaster of emotions with it, and thankfully the ride is very much worth the price of admission in this regard. Though there is a sedated brand of storytelling that concerns itself more with the many spontaneous and sporadic beats of life, one such bombshell at the film’s midway point feels like the cinematic equivalent of an atom bomb being dropped on the film’s peaceful existence, rattling everyone and everything with its untimely and unpredictable brand of earth-shattering devastation. From there, the film shifts in both tone and direction, forcing composer Valentin Hadjadj to work overtime in the dimensions of his somberly sentimental score, without any of the note-swelling volume that often and unfairly influences audience investment. Instead, Hadjadj is more interested in the tranquility and sounds of previously instilled compositions, but with a hefty layer of dramatic relevance for the circumstance, allowing them to transcend with richly eclectic versatility in instrumentals that feel like entirely new compositions all together. By the time the film ends, the experience helps to supplant a value for the important things that life rarely gifts us, with a tensely redeeming climax and finale that serves as the destination to this vulnerably somber unraveling, and one that emotionally exhausts you in the best ways possible.

NEGATIVES

Though nothing terribly traumatic to the integrity of the experience, the third act inadvertently paints itself into a corner as the obvious weakness of the film, feeling plagued by predictability and over-indulgences, which sacrifice the entertainment value during the film’s emotionally charged resolution. The resolution itself is fine enough, though written so tightly confined to a corner that there was literally no other way that this film could’ve rightfully ended, but the journey to get there throughout a third act that gleefully places one of its protagonists through what feels like a never-ending hell, the returns start to sputter out, and soon the film sacrifices its entertainment value while putting him through the hardest hitting lesson of his young life. Supplanting a value to a character is fine enough, but I feel like his regret lingers a bit longer than I would’ve appreciated, making it feel a bit manipulative in its most defining motions.

OVERALL
“Close” is a tenderly somber and heartbreaking cautionary tale about the disintegration of friendship and the death of innocence that lingers for a lifetime after. In his big screen debut, twelve-year-old Eden Dambrine harvests one of the very best child performances I’ve ever seen, and in only his second feature length direction to date, Lukas Dhont quietly deconstructs the frailties of masculinity through the eyes of a duo of emotionally charged adolescents, leaving them victimized for the seeds of change that demolish their once uniquely charming friendship.

My Grade: 9/10 or A-