With: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens, Igor van Dessel, Marc Weiss, Léon Bataille
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Written by: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens
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Directed by: Lukas Dhont
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide and brief strong language
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Language: French, Flemish, Dutch, with English subtitles
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Running Time: 104
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Date: 01/27/2023
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Split Friends
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
This French/Dutch import, nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Film, Close opens with a series of beautiful images of a summer vacation. Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele), both thirteen, are best friends, and spend all their time together, even sleeping next to each other. There's no indication that this is a romantic or sexual relationship, just one based on love. Trouble starts, as it will, when school begins. Other kids immediately assume that the boys are a couple, which, while this doesn't bother Rémi much, horrifies Léo. He begins distancing himself from Rémi, even joining the hockey team to appear more masculine. But then the unthinkable happens, and Léo realizes he must have a difficult conversation with Rémi's mother Sophie (Émilie Dequenne). The film is fine; it's gentle where it needs to be and contains strong visual flourishes, but it's heavy and unsurprising, and strikes me as the kind of movie that gets greenlit mainly to be submitted for Oscar consideration.
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