call me by your name

Starring: Timothée Chalamet & Armie Hammer

Direction by Luca Guadagnino & Story by André Aciman

Language: English

In the five minutes before I was about to board a plane to Pakistan, I hurriedly found ‘Call me by your name’ in my Netflix suggestions, so I downloaded it to watch on the flight. All in all, it was quite a strange film, and I don’t really know how to feel about it. I don’t regret watching the film, and I think the movie was great in certain aspects, but the message conveyed by the production was problematic to say the LEAST.

I had never really understood the hype surrounding Timothée Chalamet before watching this film. I heard people rant and rave about how great he was, and how skilled he was at portraying complex characters. However, I understand now why he has received so many accolades from this film. The mind of a teenager, especially one who is questioning his/her sexuality is incredibly fragile, and he was able to encapsulate all of these incredibly complicated and difficult emotions with grace and accuracy. There were definitely some strange sexually explicit scenes in the film (which I do not fully understand), but Chalamet was able to get through them unfazed.

The same cannot be said for his co-star, Armie Hammer, however. His acting was quite inconsistent throughout the film, and there were elements of complete naiveté that came through whenever he came on screen. Whether that was intentionally the director’s objective or it was just the actor’s lack of skill, Hammer’s acting was not reflective of the high standard the movie was trying to live up to.

The director’s objective was quite unclear at times, and there were certain scenes which I feel were completely unnecessary in the context of the film as a whole. Whilst the acting was superb for the most part, as was the cinematography, just watching the relationship unfold between the two characters of vastly different ages (one character being a minor) was just uncomfortable to watch.There is definitely something to be said about the final scene, where Elio finds out about Oliver’s impending marriage. The three minutes of Elio staring into the fireplace with tears in his eyes is just so powerful, and really makes the loss of love and betrayal so clear and poignant for the audience.

Although the message of the film was a little bit problematic, as was Armie Hammer’s relatively awkward portrayal of Oliver, I would give this movie an 8/10.