Movie Review: 'Call Me By Your Name' is the ultimate love fantasy

Sony Pictures Classics

Call Me By Your Name (2017, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Italy/France, in English/Italian/French, Color, 132 minutes) "Call Me By Your Name" is the ultimate gay fantasy escapist film. It has a lush, sweeping romance playing out between two handsome guys against a gorgeous, foreign locale. Lazy summer days in Northern Italy where the sun kisses your face on leisurely bike rides with your crush seems like perfection, and a hyper-realized ideal that will have the gays (and anyone else, really) swooning. It is so stylized and precise that it makes you wish we could experience love in such a way. What could be better than beautiful people falling in love in a beautiful space? Not much. 

But does a beautiful setting make up for another run-of-the-mill love story?  No.

The early-'80s set film starts off like other great romances in book and film, especially that of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Doctoral student Oscar comes to stay at the summer villa of his professor and his family, which includes his 17-year-old son Elio. At first they seem indifferent of each other, but that all changes as they explore the Italian countryside, and their true feelings, together. 

"Call Me By Your Name" has all of the iconic moments of a love story that can be found in any movie. The initial curiosity to understand each other mirrors two kids giving slight hits to each other to show their affection as they play in the sandbox, and when that first "intimate" touch happens the camera is sure to make an obvious statement about what that first moment of intimacy means. Then, when the feelings come to the surface, the characters back off a bit until they can't take it anymore and finally succumb to each other. And when it's time for goodbyes, there is the standard train platform departure and a run-to-the-back-of-the-bus-to-say-goodbye moment. The icing on the cake is a final speech about how we should have taken advantage of the love we had, to have not let it get away.

The film is a textbook example of love story moviemaking even though the technique was sharper.

All of the cliches aside I did enjoy the movie. Great care was given to make a thorough encapsulation of Elio and Oscar's relationship, which is what sets "CMBYN" apart from  other films in the romance genre. We see all of their emotions and get wrapped up in them. It was a true experience that was as fluid and natural as a gentle river. Being able to witness a love like theirs was comforting and I fell for all of it. It is so romantic and honest that you can forgive all of the typical moments such movies are usually filled with.

Rating: B