CALL ME BY YOUR NAME – Review

(l-r) Armie Hammer as Oliver and Timothee Chalamet as Elio, in director Luca Guadagnino’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics ©

Director Luca Guadagnino explores coming-of-age and gay attraction in earlier, less-open times in Italy, in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. The film is the third in the Italian director’s “Desire” trilogy, following 2009’s I AM LOVE and 2015’s A BIGGER SPLASH. Once again, Guadagnino explores passion in a beautiful Mediterranean setting.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME takes place in the summer of 1983 in scenic Lombardy, Italy, where 17-year-old American Elio Perlman (French actor Timothee Chalamet). Like all teens, he thinks of the tiny town where his family lives as impossibly dull, even though he and his parents (Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar) live in a 17th-century villa in an idyllic setting. His archaeology professor father always has a graduate student as a summer intern who lives with them. This year, it is tall, blonde and handsome Oliver (Armie Hammer). Thus begins a summer of discovery and exploration of sexual awakening that changes both their lives.

Gorgeously photographed in sunny Italy, young Elio and handsome Oliver bicycle around the beautiful countryside, visit the seashore to see newly-discovered Greek statues, and explore the quaint town. Mostly, they go swimming, with Elio’s friends or on their own, which gives us a plenty of chances to see beautiful bodies.

Basically, this film a coming-of-age film and a gay romance (it should be no spoiler to say that) set in an earlier, more restrictive time for same-sex attraction. Awakening passion and figuring out one’s identity are themes. Both the Perlmans and Oliver are Jewish but Elio describes his family as kind of secret Jews, not drawing attention to their identity in heavily Catholic Italy. On the other hand, Oliver proudly wears a Star of David on a chain around his neck. His openness about his Jewish identity intrigues Elio but no sooner does the film raise the issue of Jewish identity than it drops it, returning to the topic only in a final scene. Instead, it is sexual identity that is the focus of this story.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME has garnered a lot of praise from critics but it seems to this reviewer to offer less than the director’s previous two films in this trilogy. It certainly is a lovely romantic fantasy but it delivers less on the deeper subjects at which it hints. The film’s best moment comes late in the film, when Michael Stuhlbarg, as Elio’s professor father, gives a remarkable soliloquy that sums up some of those themes.

Still, Timothee Chalamet turns in a marvelous performance as Elio. Chalamet, who was also wonderful in LADY BIRD this year, shows Elio struggling with conflicted feelings about who he is, exploring sexuality with a girl (Esther Garrel) while also being attracted to handsome Oliver. Meanwhile, Armie Hammer gives a far-less satisfying performance. Hammer looks too old for a graduate student in his early to mid-twenties, and seems too self-assured as well. Hammer certainly looks good but he does little to really present Oliver as anything other than an idealized Adonis. Armie Hammer’s leaden performance tends to weigh down the whole film, as pretty as he is.

CALL BY YOUR NAME is a visually stunning film and a romantic tale of forbidden love, framed by the beauty of youthful bodies and picturesque Italian countryside, but not quite as complex or intriguing as the previous two films in Guadagnino’s desire series.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars