IS CLOSE A STROY OF FRIENDSHIP, TRAGEDY AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL TEENAGERS?

It’s a film for teenagers and adults who can handle a heartbreaking coming-of-age drama dealing with love, loss and regret. The acting and cinematography are perfect, so you’ll need to carry a box of tissues.

The close friendship between two 13-year-old boys is suddenly broken when their schoolmates pick on their seemingly-unbreakable bond, resulting in tragedy.

Director: Lukas Dhont
Cast: Eden Dambrine, Gustav de Waele, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens, Igor van Dessel
Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens
Release Date (Australia): 18 June 2022
Runtime: 104 minutes/1h 44m
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands
Language: French, Flemish, Dutch

PG-13 (for thematic material involving suicide and brief strong language)

It’s a youthful tragedy that so many teenagers and adults will be able to identify themselves somewhere in, either as one of these 13-year-old friends or even as an unrecognisable bystander. Close is an authentic coming-of-age drama centring on the intense friendship between two 13-year-old boys suddenly being broken and resulting in an unspeakable tragedy, leaving the final one and a half acts to focus on responsibility, healing and regret.

It’s a film of so many themes ranging from friendship, grief, regret and responsibility, whilst it examines a variety of topics such as bullying, masculinity, love and suicide. The 13-year-old boys are played by Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele, who give some of the most emotional young performances you’ll see all year. But when you look at all of the talent on the screen, Émilie Dequenne, who plays one of the boys’ mothers, is the standout of the cast just through the fact alone that she constantly looks as if she’s about to burst into tears.

Although the mood and emotional tone takes a large step just behind the film’s midpoint, the cinematography always remains stunning, bright and beautiful. It’s impossible to read about other opinions of this movie without having heard about the gorgeous shots of the boys running through the flower farm earlier in the film. But remember this is a film from director/co-writer Lukas Dhont, who made the gender dysphoria drama Girl in 2018.

Close feels like a detailed point-of-view when you were a teen of you and your best friend facing bullying and accusations on your sexuality, resulting in you two drifting apart to prevent the nasty comments, but ultimately leaving your close friend feeling transferred, in which you then feel the guilt for a heartbreaking act that cannot be fixed. Carry a box of tissues because this is a heart-wrenching movie that WILL make you cry. And even once the film is ending and once the credits finish rolling, its impact will leave you devastated for as long as you can still recall this tragic memory.

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