As a guy who has long bemoaned the stigmatization of close male friendships in American culture, advocating for more awareness of their necessity, you best believe I was stoked to hear about the 2022 movie, Close.
After watching the trailer, I was instantly sold. Two boys are shown to be close friends, even physically affectionate with one another to the point that their classmates assume them to be gay.
Yes! Finally!
I rented the movie and plopped down on a couch with a close friend, and we gave it a watch. I thought it was good; frankly, though, I expected more.
Don’t get me wrong: Close shows aspects of male friendship that desperately need to be seen.
Let me start with my mostly spoiler-free review. An overall review with significant spoilers will then follow, if you choose to continue reading.
My Mostly Spoiler-Free Review of Close
Close takes place in rural Belgium. The lead characters, Leo and Remi, are 13-year-old boys — and extremely close best friends. They enjoy doing everything together: riding bikes, playing games, and sharing the same bed during sleepovers. We even get scenes of them cuddling.
Whoa — finally, all my musings of bro cuddling shown on screen. It’s all quite touching.
Importantly, we are given no evidence that Leo’s and Remi’s relationship is anything sexual. Both boys’ sexualities are left ambiguous, as we also don’t see them expressing any interest in girls.
I think this detail is wise, as it leaves their relationship open to interpretation. Sexuality, one way or the other, is not part of this story.
If this movie really wanted to be about society’s corruption of young, gay relationships, it could have easily done so. Especially as a low-budget, independent, foreign film.
Unfortunately, a new school year with new classmates brings misunderstandings of the boys’ closeness. Some of the girls ask Leo and Remi if they are a couple, which confuses them. They deny it. The girls are also confused, because by their standards of male friendship they look more like a romantic pairing.
Things get worse when the two close friends get bullied by some other boys, even called a gay slur. Leo grows self-conscious and starts pulling away from Remi. He no longer wants to be as touchy-feely with Remi at school, and he also avoids sharing a bed with him during their sleepovers.
When Leo avoids Remi to the point of standing him up for a designated get-together, a schoolyard brawl erupts between the two close friends.
Something pivotal happens halfway through the film, which I won’t spoil yet, but Leo struggles to deal with the ramifications for the rest of the story.
So, what did I like about Close?
First off, I’m just so, so happy to see a movie tackle this subject matter. Close, affectionate male friendships should be a natural reality separate from sexuality. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case in America and the West. Sometimes homophobia is indeed to blame for the lack of closeness between men; other times, it’s just cultural misunderstandings.
Straight men may not want to engage in close physical touch with other men because “that’s gay behavior.”
“I’m not gay, so I don’t do that,” they may rationalize.
Boys may also reach a certain age of losing their relational innocence. They “eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Gay and Straight,” if you will, and this suddenly complicates things. Close depicts such an adolescent transition wonderfully.
On a technical level, this movie is gorgeously shot with fantastic cinematography. The acting is also well-executed, especially between the two young leads.
Overall, I really liked Close and recommend it to anyone who has struggled with society’s gay stigmatization of close male friendships.
But I also can’t blindly praise a movie just because I agree with its message. Unfortunately, the things I didn’t like in this film will lead me into some significant spoilers.
So, if you’ve read this far and still want to watch Close without being spoiled, please stop reading and come back after you’ve watched the film.
Now, let’s get into what I didn’t like about Close . . .
My Overall Review with SPOILERS of Close
Halfway through the film, after his contentious fallout with Leo . . .
Remi takes his own life. This shocks Leo, and he falls into prolonged denial. He realizes that much of Remi’s decision is his fault from pushing him away, and he goes back and forth about whether to tell Remi’s mom, with whom he’s also close. He almost does tell her several times, but these interactions turn into near-misses.
When he does eventually tell her, a deeply emotional reckoning ensues. And they return to better terms.
This climactic part of the movie is done well. It’s emotional, and you feel the weight of the drama between Leo and the mother of his best friend. I recently went through the ordeal of losing a friend to suicide, and Close really captures this grief.
However, the aftermath of Remi’s suicide is a long, slow burn.
Frankly, I think the film drops the whole “close” theme between two boys in favor of this new theme about suicide’s impact on the ones left behind. It’s not a bad new theme, but it’s almost like a different director, with a different take, takes over the film.
I think more of the overall screen time could have been devoted to showing more of Leo’s and Remi’s friendship. It would have been more befitting of the film’s central theme if Remi’s suicide had occurred two-thirds, rather than halfway through the story. This plot point kills the momentum of the movie, and it turns rather dull.
But then again, maybe that’s just my expectations talking. Close friendship between boys is important subject matter, and it got watered down more than it should have sadly.
I find myself with so many questions to analyze from this film.
Is a deep, touch-filled relationship between males automatically “gay,” even if no sex is involved? Are any romantic feelings between males “gay,” even if no sexual attraction or activity is involved? Do most boys go through an innocence-losing phase? How much does culture and nature play into friendships between boys?
Despite my critical takes, I didn’t dislike Close. I do recommend this film, especially for folks who want to see depictions of platonic, yet affectionate friendships between boys.
I just think Close could have been more of a great movie, and it doesn’t quite reach that level.
What did you think of Close? Do you wish more of Leo’s and Remi’s friendship had been shown? What came up for you while witnessing their emotional and physical closeness at the start of this film?
“Eat from the tree of the knowledge of gay and straight” is a great turn of phrase. And that’s the movie’s central tragedy (the one from which the others spring). The implicit comparison of the boys living in an Eden of sorts with their friendship is apt, as there are a lot of parallels: From innocence to self-consciousness and shame, an outside tempter (that Leo gives into) in the form of their classmates, once they’ve become self-conscious they can’t ever really go back, and even that eating from the tree leads to death.
Absolutely and I think this is the case for all men. At a certain age they get into their minds “oh okay this is gay behavior, this is straight behavior. I’m not gay so I don’t do these things.” And its not out of homophobia if you will, but a social stigmatization of behaviors.