An emotionally charged coming of age tale

EVERY now and again, a movie comes along and offers a truly transformative cinematic experience. This is that movie.

WHAT a way to close out the year — 2017 has saved its best film for last with the stunning and intoxicating Call Me By Your Name.

Set in the Italian countryside in 1983, Call Me By Your Name is the beautifully crafted coming-of-age story of Elio (Timothee Chalamet), the 17-year-old son of an American antiquities professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his French wife (Amira Casar).

Every summer, his father invites a graduate student to stay and aid his research. The handsome Oliver (Armie Hammer) is the opposite of the thoughtful and introverted Elio — confident, open and completely relaxed with himself.

While Elio and Oliver both become involved with two girls staying in the town for the summer, it’s clear their connection to each other is deeper than as forced acquaintances.

As they spend more time together, the attraction grows to the point Elio steals a kiss by the lake. When the pair consummates their relationship the scene is incredibly charged, though not explicit.

It should also be noted the movie adroitly deals with the age gap between Elio and the 25-year-old Oliver by telling the story entirely from the teen’s perspective. It never suggests any impropriety on Oliver’s part.

Emotionally and sexually charged

Elio’s sexual awakening comes at a time when such couplings are forbidden. But the movie doesn’t create false tension by suggesting a sense of jeopardy to dilute the heady desires on display. It culminates in Elio’s father’s speech to his son, words so full of empathy and wisdom you just want to hear them again and again. Someone give Stuhlbarg his overdue Oscar.

Every element of Call Me By Your Name works in symphony, including James Ivory’s minimalist script — the veteran’s first screenplay first since 2003.

Director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) manages to exact astonishing control over each exhilarating moment and careful detail — from a close-up of a knee to bicycles laid against a wall — but it somehow still feels like dreamy nonchalance.

The chemistry between Chalamet and Hammer is feverish without being obvious. The course of their romance also manages to surprise.

Chalamet is an absolute star and his performance here is textured, kinetic and masterfully hints at Elio’s rich inner life without the luxury of dialogue. Call Me By Your Name also proves Hammer is a much more interesting actor than some of his previous work has suggested (ahem, Lone Ranger).

Book your ticket to Italy now

The languid piano composition underscores the laid-back allure of the place and of the moment, of lazy days spent sunning and reading by the pool and of nights spent in the throes of intense passion.

Indie artist Sufjan Stevens recorded two new songs for the film and remixed another — all tender emotion and sensual longing. The Psychedelic Furs’ Love My Way is also deployed, twice, with brilliant effect.

There’s a concept in psychology called liminal space. Essentially, it’s about that threshold moment when you’ve left behind the comfortable and familiar but haven’t yet crossed over into what’s next. It’s that in-between period where the possibilities are as exciting as the uncertainty is daunting. It’s probably no coincidence that characters are often framed by a doorway.

So many coming-of-age stories deal with exactly this time, the transition between childhood and adulthood, when whatever happens doesn’t seem quite real. Few films handle it with as much grace and humanity as Call Me By Your Name and the audience is as transformed by the experience as the characters.

Call Me By Your Name demands to be seen and savoured. Don’t fight it, let it wash over you, swim in it and hold onto this incredible piece of work well after the credits roll. It is truly transcendent filmmaking.

Rating: 5/5

Call Me By Your Name is in cinemas from Boxing Day.

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