Close is a 2022 film from Belgium directed by Lukas Dhont and starring Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele and Émilie Dequenne.
Leo is a French-speaking Belgian (Walloon), aged 13. He is best friends with his classmate and neighbor, Remi. The boys do everything together: they sit next to each other in class, they eat together at lunch, they play together at recess, they hang out together after school. Sometimes they have sleepovers—where they sleep in the same bed. And spoon.
Out of nowhere one day, one of the girls in class asks if Leo and Remi are a romantic couple. Leo is startled. Soon after some of the other boys call Leo a "f***t." Leo starts to reconsider his and Remi's friendship. He adopts some more stereotypically masculine hobbies, talking about soccer with the other boys, joining a youth ice hockey team. He also starts pulling away from Remi. Tragedy ensues.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Charlie is introduced as Leo's big brother when Leo starts helping him pick flowers and Charlie says "How nice of you to come help your big brother."
- Call-Back: The opening scene has Leo and Remi doing a Meadow Run together through the field of flowers, implying that there's an element of romance to their friendship. The last scene has Leo running through the field of flowers alone, then looking back for his friend, who isn't there. Then the film ends.
- Coming of Age Story: A tween boy has to deal with his emerging sexuality, his possibly romantic feelings for his best friend, and later, suicide.
- Driven to Suicide: Remi kills himself, apparently because Leo has rejected him.
- Gayngst: Leo is the POV character and Remi never makes an Anguished Declaration of Love, so it's ambiguous. But one scene has Remi confronting Leo about not waiting for him so they can leave school together, then hitting Leo while also bursting into tears. Remi also more often initiates the touching, trying to use Leo as a Lap Pillow and trying to snuggle next to Leo on the floor after Leo doesn't get into bed with him for a sleepover. It's implied that Remi actually is gay, and he's distraught when Leo rejects him, which leads Remi to kill himself.
- Gray Rain of Depression: It is pouring rain as Leo walks home, crying, after going to see Remi's mother and looking at Remi's room.
- Incompatible Orientation: Maybe. Clearly Leo pulls away from Remi in part because he's embarrassed by the conclusions his classmates have drawn. But does Leo also pull away from Remi because actually he's straight, or because he can't deal with his feelings? It's unclear.
- Kids Are Cruel: Actually a pretty understated example. The boys in class don't do very much other than call Leo a "f***t", but Leo can't deal with that, and starts pulling away from Remi.
- Killed Offscreen: Leo is the point of view character throughout, so Remi's suicide isn't shown. Instead, Remi does not show up for a field trip and all the other parents are there when the bus gets back, so that's when Leo finds out.
- Lap Pillow: Remi thinks nothing of laying his head on Leo's stomach when the boys are laying out in the schoolyard during recess. Leo, who is growing uncomfortable with the attention they are getting from classmates—and possibly, uncomfortable with either Remi's touching or his own feelings about it—pulls away from Remi and flips over onto his stomach. Remi, who doesn't get it, then tries to rest his head on the small of Leo's back before Leo pulls away again.
- Meadow Run: Leo's family runs a flower farm. An early scene has the boys running together through the fields of flowers, establishing the possibly romantic attachment.
- Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Leo and Remi are more touchy-feely than most boys, going so far as to share the same bed. One of the ambiguities of the film is the extent to which Leo and Remi's friendship is this, or how much it's a blooming romance between two pubescent boys. Leo obviously thinks it's a platonic friendship, but how much he is denying feelings for Remi is not clear.
- Riddle for the Ages: Is Leo gay? The film never says, although it's suggested that he joined the hockey team purely to look less gay and he doesn't really like it.
- Notably, while Leo starts doing more masculine things like talking about soccer and playing hockey, he does not try and deflect the suspicion of his teammates by chatting up girls.
- Two-Act Structure: The first half of the film establishes that the two boys have a very close friendship with an unusual amount of physical intimacy, then has Leo withdraw from Remi as he starts to realize what their friendship implies. Almost exactly at the halfway point, Remi kills himself. The second half is Leo dealing with his grief and the aftermath.
