An exercise in cynicism?

Rating: 5/10 (9 March 2018)

"Call Me by Your Name" is one of the more tedious gay-themed films I have seen. It is impossible to care about its main character, because you never really get to know him. The movie is drastically overlong, at over two hours, and feels like twice that length. You'd think you'd get some kind of insight into the protagonist after spending all that time with him. You'd be wrong.
I wonder if "Call Me by Your Name" is actually just an exercise in cynicism. Hear me out: It's about a young gay man who is attracted to the boring hunk who comes to stay. They end up having sex, but the young man also has sex with a girl. Aside from that, the protagonist doesn't do or say much. He just lies around reading books and smoking.
Here's where the cynicism comes in. Could it be that the filmmakers believe that if their character is gay, he doesn't HAVE to say or do anything interesting - people will go see the movie and defend it regardless, because he's gay?
Just a thought.
Armie Hammer has to be one of the dullest actors around. He makes absolutely no impression. I have seen him in movies before, but didn't recognize him in this, because he is so boring you forget about him from movie to movie, or even scene to scene. Just as there is no attempt to make the protagonist interesting, there's also no attempt to make this object of his lust interesting either.
People are probably going to be too scared to say they didn't like a movie such as "Call Me by Your Name", for fear of being branded homophobes. I am not: characters have to do more to keep my interest than just being gay, black, female, whatever. "Call Me by Your Name" is a snoozefest.