Sam (Elliot Page) is returning home for the first time since transitioning in Close To You. His hopes and fears for his family reunion are both debunked and validated, especially when he meets his old school friend, Katherine (Hillary Baack).
Close To You
Dominic Savage (director and writer), Elliot Page (writer), Catherine Lutes (cinematography), David Charap (editor)
Elliot Page, Hillary Baack (cast)
September 10, 2023 (TIFF)
Close To You was a highly anticipated film at TIFF 2023, what with it being set partly in Toronto and mostly in Ontario, and starring Canadian actors Elliot Page and Hillary Baack. I was delighted to secure a spot for the world premiere at TIFF 2023, which turned out to be an extremely emotional affair for the audience and the cast and crew.
There’s a central question Close To You asks of the audience—can you find yourself by leaving behind everything you’ve grown up with? For Sam, that’s the only way he can be himself, the real him, because he never felt he could while growing up with his gaggle of siblings in his parents’ large home in Coburg, Ontario. But now that he’s himself, he’s transitioned, he’s happy, how does he go back to that place and to those people?
But Close To You is also a love story. On the train to Coburg, Sam bumps into Katherine. They were best friends at school and Katherine’s reaction to seeing Sam as himself is joy and relief and maybe something a bit more? Katherine is now married and has two children—what is she to do with her complicated feelings for Sam?
The chemistry between Page and Baack pops right off the screen from the moment Sam and Katherine reconnect. After the film, Baack spoke about having worked with Page many years ago, which explains the easy chemistry between their characters.
As much as I love a queer love story, the way Close To You portrays the family dynamics was where the strengths of this story really lay. Sam has a different relationship with his mother, his father, and each sibling. Plus, there are his sisters’ partners. One is a lovely lad who is delighted to be friends with Sam. The other? A transphobic asshat who should be shot out of a cannon.
While Sam does get closure on his life in Coburg, I felt like his family in Close To You kept centering themselves when discussing his transition. At one point, Sam confides that he felt so alone and unwell at home and the person he says this to breaks down because she didn’t know and she’s so sad that she was so close to Sam but didn’t catch on to his pain. Yes, ma’am, let’s make this all about you.
There are other micro transgressions that Sam has to put up with—he’s understanding of being misgendered but then it becomes this whole thing with people beating themselves up about it. He’s forgiven you, let it go!
Queer and trans folks will relate to these moments but I do wish that the film hadn’t been so forgiving of the characters’ behaviours.
The entire family sequence in Close To You was such a triumph but the standout for me was the interaction between Sam and his dad, Jim (Peter Outerbridge). That scene broke my heart in two, yet gave me hope. You understand Sam’s pain at feeling that he maybe a disappointment, as well as Jim’s fears for his son. Just brilliant acting and chemistry and dialogue.
And you can say that about everyone in Close To You. Page explained that the script had no dialogue, just description. The actors created the conversations on set. This required extremely long takes—20-30 minutes at a time and one take was 53 minutes long! As surprising as that is, Page did say that it allowed the actors to live in the moment longer and really develop their characters’ relationships. That’s why the dialogue and the expressions felt so authentic. There’s a scene that makes so much sense once I learned about the filming process—Sam keeps questioning this one person, “what do you mean”, he repeats, forcing the other character to stew in their own prejudice. It felt so real and now I know why. As Page said, it brought out an “intimacy, rawness, and honesty” from their performances. It was the “purest way of acting”, he added.
The only aspect that I felt could have been better was the ending. It seemed like we got two endings to Close To You—a slightly unbelievable but happier ending, and then a more ambiguous one. We didn’t really need both. I would have suspended my disbelief for a happy ending!
This is probably nitpicking but the piano score interludes in Close To You added a forced melancholy that wasn’t required. The melancholic atmosphere was obvious in so many other ways—it’s shot during the Toronto winter, how much more melancholic can you get?
Despite these little issues, Close To You was one of the best films I’ve seen at TIFF 2023. The performances were magnificent. Page is stunning and heartbreaking to watch. The queer romance was beautiful. It was an immersive and authentic experience that will help a lot of people feel seen.
