Wonderful chemistry between lead actors saves the day

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2018)

This tells a twisting coming of age story for Elio, the seventeen year old son of an Italian archaeology professor. The relationships that develop between Elio (Timothée Chalamet), summer house-guest research assistant Oliver (Armie Hammer) and village girl Marzia (Esther Garrel) is what saves the film from self indulgent tedium. I thought Timothée Chalamet was superb in his challenging role. I didn't particularly warm to Armie Hammer's Oliver, and from this there were aspects of his relationships with others that didn't seem to ring quite true to me. Elio's father, Prof Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) makes the most of some insightful lines towards the end.
The film was shot on location in Lomardia, northern Italy and the settings, particularly the villa, surrounding orchard and river and scenery on quiet rural roads and little villages provided perfect backdrops.
The film captures the languid summer laziness, where meals punctuate swims, naps, trips to town, reading, chatting and playing musical instruments. Maybe it captures this too well, as found the first half pretty slow. It builds slowly leading to the second half feeling pretty right. The ending is particularly satisfying, and I suggest you try to remember that if you're tempted to bail out earlier. It is set in 1983, so no smart phones or laptops, and there's a bit of a reminder that maybe we did talk, play games and interact directly with each other more then, with benefits to our overall humanity.