Haunting

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2017)

Timothée Chalamet sets the bar very high. He is entirely natural, you never feel he's acting, yet he communicates every skipped heartbeat of his character's love. Armie Hammer, meanwhile, impresses in a completely different way as Oliver, an American arrived in Italy to work as an academic assistant for six weeks . Initially presenting himself as an old head on young shoulders, Mr Hammer seems to shed years as the story progresses, his spirit freed by his encounter with Chalamet's Elio.
The first hour of this remarkable film winds up the sexual tension to an almost unendurable pitch, as misunderstandings give rise to missed opportunities and missteps. The course of true love never did run smooth....
The film is not without flaws. Only an actor as good as Michael Stuhlbarg, as Elio's father (who is Oliver's employer) could convert a self-conscious, set-piece speech into the moving, compassionate declaration that we get. And although on occasion Luca Guadagnino's direction borders on genius -- including the astonishing final scene -- it occasionally resorts to unsubtle symbolism that would turn into something comic if it weren't for the commitment of the actors.
All that aside, I find many images, lines of dialogue, and Mr Chalamet's incredible intensity, haunting me. I expect this will continue for quite a while yet.