Everything about this movie is just beautiful and perfect. It's not big or flashy... if anything, it's an incredibly sensual and languid movie, taking it's time with it's 132 minute run time.
It also avoided a lot of the tropes I'm used to from this kind of story... and I don't think it qualifies as spoilers if I say that there's no great manufactured conflict and resolution, there's no exposure/outing, there's no villain. These are people, not plot points.
Between them director Luca Guadagnino, writer James Ivory (he of Merchant Ivory fame, and adapting the novel by André Aciman) and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom have constructed a film that all feels incredibly real, and grounded, and amazing.
Armie Hammer as Oliver and Timothée Chalamet as Elio both do amazing work as the leads, but it's Chalamet who absolutely blew my mind. In every scene you can see the character feeling something, be it jealousy, passion, sadness, contempt, fear... he puts it all on his face and in the way he moves.
The camera is absolutely in love with him as well, between the cinematography and the lighting and the (often lack of) costuming, there is definitely a focus on his body in ways that there aren't with Hammer as the object of his affection/obsession. I wasn't sure if I was just imagining it until a scene about half way through where there's a discussion of ancient statues and Elio's father says that they're "daring you to desire them"... which is what I think the movie is doing with Chalamet as Elio.
Or that's just me.
Hammer has been fantastic in everything I've seen him in and he continues to be here, although much more of an enigmatic character since the story and camera is most often focused on Elio.
I also have to give a giant shout out to Michael Stuhlbarg (most recently seen in The Shape of Water as the scientist) in the role of Elio's father. There's an amazing speech that he gives at the end of the movie that just totally wrecked me, not just for the words, but also for what it means in the 1983 world of the movie.
What I'm also incredibly glad about is that I now have the novel sitting on my bedside table, waiting for me to start it, so I can immerse myself back into the world of Call Me By Your Name.
yani's rating: 5 peaches out of 5
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