Call Me by Your Name: Movie Review

Beautifully shot and a quiet, slow take on the intricacies of attraction, “Call Me By Your Name” succeeds in showing the bare-thin thread and inner conundrum between two unlikely lovers.

It is 1983, Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is a seventeen-year-old who lives in the Italian countryside with his parents. His father is a professor of archaeology who invites scholarly guests every year. This time it is Oliver (Armie Hammer) who will help with his academic paperwork. At the start, Elio finds Oliver as arrogant with his carefree personality. Soon, as Elio and Oliver spend more time with each other, an unlikely and unexpected attraction emerges between the two.

“Call Me By Your Name” is a great adaptation of an even greater novel. While the film scores high marks, let’s get the cat out of the bag early, it does not hold a candle to the novel it was adapted on. While the film tried its best to convey the tension between Elio and Oliver, it fails to paint the whole picture. There are times that we were surprised at how things escalated quickly between the two. The film’s tempo suffers a bit as it tries to amplify the relationship further and further in suddenly at key moments. But don’t let that deceive you into thinking that the movie lacks emotional depth. This is farther from the truth. Those slow scenes were not only beautiful ones to look at but it also portrayed the inner and outer tension that kept bombarding our leads' heads and hearts. Elio, in particular, had the brunt of it all as he was young and confused about the feelings that haunted him. The film’s success comes from outstanding acting from Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Both were convincing and had great flexibility to capture the struggle they felt. What’s most important though is that “Call Me By Your Name” may challenge your beliefs and assumptions about love - that it isn’t black or white, that age or gender should not define its limits all the time.

Rating: 4 reels





Why you should watch it:
- an intimate and close-up look on the intricacies of attraction
- stellar performances from the two main leads

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- tempo and beat of the film needs reworking