Review: Bring tissues to the Oscar-nominated 'Close,' but also a little skepticism
"Close" badly wants your tears and, on occasion, it earns them. A flawlessly acted, precision-tooled heartbreaker from 31-year-old Belgian writer-director Lukas Dhont, it tells an Edenic love story, conjuring a rapturous state of intimacy that gives way to a tragic fall from grace. What gives the movie its faint whisper of the taboo — a taboo that it proceeds to dismantle — is that the love story here happens to be between two 13-year-old boys, Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele). They're longtime best friends who have grown as close as brothers, with none of the usual hang-ups about physical affection between boys.
