Film Review - Close
Images courtesy of Madman.
Il me manque
~ He is missing from me
Director Lukas Dhont’s sophomore feature film Close explores the relationship between two best friends, Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) as they begin high school. Inspired by developmental psychologist Dr Niobe Way’s 2011 book Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection, Dhont explores the way in which boys and girls are socialised from a young age to express intimacy in different ways. And by different, I mean any form of physical intimacy between boys is frowned upon and viewed as sexual. This leads to boys and later men, learning to repress their emotions to be seen as ‘masculine’, in turn leading to isolation and finding it difficult to express their emotions in a healthy way.
Close opens by immediately setting up the long-established closeness of Léo and Rémi’s friendship. They spend their summer together in their Belgian rural town, running through fields, playing imaginary games, and having sleepovers. In the same bed. Their sleepovers are innocent and help to establish their friendship through Rémi’s anxiety before their first day of school and Léo guiding him through breathing exercises; with these breathing sounds continuing throughout the film as a form of background sound.
The film relies a lot on subtext and drawn-out silences; deliberately vague in parts to welcome the audience to jump to their own conclusions about the boys and the intimacy of their relationship - similar to what the children at their school do. The title drop comes in early as an indignant Léo rebukes the innocent questions from girls in their year enquiring about their relationship by maintaining that they are ‘close like brothers’. Léo raises the important point that the girls act the same around each other, so why should it be viewed any differently between him and Rémi?
Unfortunately, the boys in their year are less innocent, taunting the boys with homophobic slurs and physical bullying. And it is at this moment that the film abandons the storyline of two friends and begins to focus on Léo, his insecurities, resentment towards Rémi, and his need to fit in with the other boys and be ‘normal’.
However, this film isn’t about whether or not the boys had feelings for each other but rather how society viewed, judged, and ruined them. Focussing on whether or not Léo or Rémi maybe harboured closeted feelings for his respective best friend undercuts the heartbreaking cruelty of the message. Whilst the big plot twist was rather predictable, placing it in the middle of the film was a nice addition, allowing the film to shift in tone and for the previously unknown Dambrine to shine; his expressive eyes conveying everything the repressed Léo is unable to process. This was particularly evident in the later scenes with Rémi’s mother Sophie (Émilie Dequenne) as they awkwardly weave around each other, paralysed by grief.
Close is a contender for the 2023 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, having already won the Grand Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. So if you enjoy French language films exploring gender roles, childhood friendships, repression, and guilt, then this is the film for you. Just remember to bring a box of tissues.
4.5 / 5
Close is screening in cinemas from Thursday 16th February. For tickets and more info, click here.