Close

Close tells the story of Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele), two 13-year-old boys living in rural Belgium who share a deeply intimate bond with each other. After a carefree summer together, the boys start high school and find themselves in the same class, but their closeness is thrown into disarray when their classmates notice it and begin commenting on it, ranging from seemingly innocent questions to full-on homophobic abuse. Rémi tries to ignore the comments and maintain his friendship with Léo, but Léo starts to feel uneasy about how his bond with Rémi is seen by his peers, creating a rift between the two boys that threatens to destroy their relationship.

Close is a story that tackles a lot of weighty concepts through its explorations of Léo and Rémi’s ever-shifting character dynamics, using their relationship to examine a range of topics including toxic masculinity and homophobia. This central dynamic is thoroughly compelling (aided significantly by fantastic performances from its leading lads), going from the idyllic visions of friendship and love to bitterness and a loss of innocence, culminating in the narrative being entirely subsumed by anger and grief for what the two boys have lost. It’s not perfect in its social commentary, and some of its metaphors can be heavy-handed or formulaic, but it largely accomplishes its goal of tugging on its audience’s heartstrings, while providing incisive commentary about the social mechanisms that pervade our lives. 

The film manages to effectively capture the complexity and difficulty of navigating the world as a child through cinematography and sound design. Close’s camera work is constantly, well, close to Léo and Rémi, emphasising and amplifying their subtle emotions and communicating the intensity of those feelings with almost claustrophobic framing. The audio landscape of the feature contributes to this cinematic sensory overload, with the background noises of everyday life often forcing themselves to the foreground to heighten the tension in otherwise innocuous and mundane scenes.

Overall, Close is a brilliant and moving examination of intimacy and vulnerability, of love and loss and the way the two intertwine. It’s a piece with a lot of ambition, and it doesn’t stick the landing on every part of its complicated story, but for the most part, it succeeds at telling a tragic and poignant story with care and passion. It’s at times a painful watch, but that pain never feels gratuitous or self-indulgent.

Umar Ali

Close is released in select cinemas on 3^rd March 2023.

Watch the trailer for Close here: