Close on 123movies: A Heartbreaking Portrait of Childhood's End

I’m a teacher for a class of ten-year-olds in a small school in the countryside. I see friendships form and fray every single day over things as small as a shared crayon or a secret told on the playground. Over the years, I’ve learned to notice the subtle shifts—a hesitation during a game, a shared look that isn’t returned, a new distance between two children who were inseparable just yesterday. You see how early the world starts whispering its rules, especially to boys, telling them how they’re supposed to act and forcing them to build little walls around their feelings.

It’s this fragile, heartbreaking reality that is explored with devastating beauty in Lukas Dhont’s film, Close. This is not a movie with grand plot twists or loud action. It is a quiet, intimate, and profoundly empathetic observation of a childhood friendship at its purest, and the tragedy that unfolds when the pressures of the outside world begin to invade that sacred space. It’s a film that understands that the deepest wounds are often the most silent ones.

An Endless Summer: The Story of Léo and Rémi

The film introduces us to Léo and Rémi, two thirteen-year-old boys whose bond is as natural and effortless as breathing. Their summer is an idyllic blur of bike rides through vibrant flower fields, imaginative games, and easy physical affection. They are brothers in everything but blood. Rémi plays the oboe, and Léo watches him with adoration. Léo runs through the fields of his family's flower farm, and Rémi runs with him. Their intimacy is pure and unselfconscious, a perfect portrait of childhood innocence captured in sun-drenched, golden hues.

Everything changes when they begin a new school. Their closeness is immediately noticed and questioned by their new classmates. A girl asks if they are "together," and that simple, loaded question shatters their innocent world. Léo, more sensitive to the judgment of his peers, begins to pull away. He joins the ice hockey team, seeking the rough camaraderie of the other boys. He stops waiting for Rémi after school. Every small act of distancing is a quiet betrayal, a rejection that the more sensitive Rémi cannot comprehend. Léo’s tragic and immature decision to create space between them sets in motion a chain of events that leads to an unbearable and irreversible tragedy.

Innocence and Heartbreak: The Performances

The film's immense power rests on the two astonishingly natural performances from its young leads. Eden Dambrine as Léo is a revelation. He carries the weight of the film's second half, his face a canvas of confusion, guilt, and unspoken grief. He communicates Léo’s inner turmoil almost entirely through his eyes and his tense, guarded body language. As Rémi, Gustav De Waele is heartbreakingly open and vulnerable. His confusion and pain in the face of his best friend’s rejection are palpable. The chemistry between the two boys feels utterly real, making their connection and its fracture all the more devastating.

The supporting performances from Émilie Dequenne and Léa Drucker, as Rémi’s and Léo’s mothers respectively, are equally powerful. Dequenne, in particular, delivers a masterclass in understated grief as a mother trying to understand the incomprehensible, her shared scenes with Léo vibrating with sorrow and a desperate need for answers.

Key Film Credits

• Director: Lukas Dhont
• Screenplay by: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens
• Starring: Eden Dambrine (as Léo), Gustav De Waele (as Rémi), Émilie Dequenne (as Sophie), Léa Drucker (as Nathalie)
• Producers: Michiel Dhont, Dirk Impens
• Cinematographer: Frank van den Eeden

A Gaze of Empathy: Dhont's Intimate Direction

Lukas Dhont directs with incredible sensitivity and restraint. His camera is deeply intimate, often focusing on his characters' faces in tight close-ups, forcing the audience to live inside their emotional spaces. He understands that the most significant moments are often the unspoken ones—a glance across a classroom, a hand that is not taken. The cinematography by Frank van den Eeden is breathtaking, contrasting the warm, vibrant colours of the flower fields that represent the boys’ idyllic friendship with the colder, starker blues and greys of the ice rink and the school that tear them apart. It's a visually poetic and emotionally resonant film, the kind of quiet masterpiece that cinephiles are thrilled to discover on services like 123movies.

The film doesn’t judge its characters, least of all Léo. It approaches his fumbling, panicked reaction to social pressure with profound empathy, understanding that he is just a child, ill-equipped to handle the complex emotions he is faced with. This gentle, observational style makes the film’s emotional climax all the more shattering.

A Quietly Resounding Success: Reception and Awards

Close premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a rapturous reception, receiving a lengthy standing ovation and winning the prestigious Grand Prix, the festival's second-highest honour. From there, it became a critical darling across the globe, earning a 92% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, further cementing its status as one of the most acclaimed films of the year.

This was never going to be a loud blockbuster, but its power spread through passionate word-of-mouth. Viewers and critics were deeply moved by its honesty and emotional depth. Its success shows that there is a significant audience for quiet, character-driven cinema, and its availability on platforms such as 123movies has allowed its vital, heartbreaking story to reach an even wider viewership.

As a teacher, this film felt painfully, achingly real. It’s a devastating reminder of the fragility of childhood and the immense responsibility we as adults have to nurture and protect it. It highlights the quiet crisis in boyhood, where society often forces young boys to sever their emotional ties in order to fit a narrow, damaging definition of masculinity. The story of Léo and Rémi is a tragedy, but it’s also a powerful call for empathy. It makes me look at the children in my own classroom, at their simple, profound friendships, and it reinforces my desire to ensure that my classroom is a space where every child feels safe enough to be exactly who they are, without walls and without fear.

Close: Film Fact Sheet

Critical Reception:

Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (Certified Fresh)
Metacritic: 81/100

Audience Scores:

IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
TMDb Score: 79%

Box Office Performance:

Worldwide Gross: Approx. $7.1 million

Major Awards and Nominations:

Academy Awards: Nominee, Best International Feature Film
Cannes Film Festival: Won, Grand Prix (tied)
Golden Globe Awards: Nominee, Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language
César Awards: Nominee, Best Foreign Film

Source: https://123movies26.com