FILM REVIEW: "Close" is a poignant exploration of a trampled boyhood friendship
Poignant and filled with beautifully composed shots, Close is an elegy to boyhood friendship and the loss of innocence.
It’s far easier to make friends as a child than as an adult – Jerry Seinfeld has a characteristically terrific bit on this – but childhood friendships are more likely to be fraught with emotional peril as puberty rears its ugly head.
Close begins with Remi and Leo, a couple of 12 to 13 year old boys, playing outside together. It’s obvious they’re affectionate and physically at ease with one another. Yet it’s absent of yearning or any kind of tension one would associate with homoeroticism. Indeed, it’s a unique unselfconscious love existing in a state of total nourishment.
Although it’s as pretty as a flower to behold, it’s just as delicate. The unusual intensity of their friendship is noticed at school and vile, disgusting words are thrown in their faces. Scared and disturbed, Leo decides to end their friendship. Remi’s world is destroyed and he lacks the language to articulate his pain. Leo also lacks the language to justify his actions, probably because he knows there is none. What follows is a devastating fallout that ‘Close’ captures with heartbreaking specificity and realism.
To say anymore would spoil the plot, the contours of which are best explored yourself. Suffice it to say this is a powerful story told with empathy and artistry.
