Summer love discovered, explored and never forgotten

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2017)

I am usually quick to start focusing on the next film as soon as I've finished one, but here is a rare exception that I prefer to let linger on for a while even at the risk of my memory of it becoming unremarkable. That's because it's one of the most subtly affecting and beautiful love stories that I've seen in years. A low-key pace and a sumptuous musical score build the film to a conclusion that is truly flawless.
The story is of a young American graduate student who stays with a professor in his country house in Italy in the summer of 1983 and slowly develops an intimate relationship with the professor's precocious 17-year-old son. Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer are both brilliant in this film as the two who find companionship in an unexpected place, and Michael Stuhlbarg is wonderful as the professor. The young man and the teenage boy do not interact much at first, mostly because the young man appears detached and unresponsive. But I would be loath to reveal too much after that. Let's just say it's a film that one should absorb slowly and let its quiet power take hold. It's a film that truly captures some wonderful truths about the human condition, about the emotional toll of relationships and about how much one's secrets shape one's dynamic with others.
In terms of cinematography, there is much of the Italian countryside to marvel at. It makes that country seem like one of the most blissful and sublime places in the world to visit. History buffs and linguists will find some welcome material in the professor's dialogues with his graduate student to enjoy. As quiet and austere as the film may be at times, it contains a deeper passion that gradually gets tapped into and colors the mindset despite the taboo nature of the material. Never long or protracted, it will keep you guessing until the end and just leave a haunting feeling after it's over. Gladly recommended to anyone in search of true cinema.