Close to You

It's a trans child negotiating his family relationship drama set over several days in present-day Toronto and Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. Sam (Elliot Page) is a trans male who transitioned from female, probably in his early 20s. He lives and works in Toronto and rooms in a house owned by Emily (Sook-Yin Lee). Sam has not seen his family for five years. Still, he has decided to go home to Cobourg, 95 kilometers east of Toronto along Lake Ontario, to help celebrate his father Jim's (Peter Outerbridge) birthday with the rest of the family.

The movie follows Sam's train ride to Cobourg, on which he meets his old high school flame, Katherine (Hillary Baack), who is now married with children in Cobourg. Two parallel stories unfold, one follows Sam's encounters with his family, including his mother (Wendy Crewson), two sisters (Janet Porter and Alex Paxton-Beesley), brother, Michael (Daniel Maslany), and the two sisters' partners (Andrew Bushell and David Reale). The second follows Sam's efforts to reconnect with Katherine.

"Close to You" is dark and filled with uncomfortable conversations. Sam's relationships with different family members vary and end in crisis. The yearning for understanding and acceptance amidst discomfort is powerfully portrayed. Sam's relationship with Katherine is also complex and is not as well explored, partly because she is deaf. That story leaves many unanswered questions. The film's cinematography is intimate and doesn't always work, sometimes feeling like it drags. Elliot Page is outstanding. My ears had trouble understanding Hillary Baack at times. The various Cobourg family members' characterizations are well-done and varied.

"Close to You" gets an extra point for an insightful portrayal of a challenging subject.

Sam has left home - the small town of Coburg - moved to Toronto, and has transitioned from female to male. He now takes a trip home - the 1st in 4 years. On the train, he happens to meet Katherine, his best friend from high school.

The reason for the return is his father's birthday party, which allows the writers to populate the family with a selection of attitudes about the transition. His father is mostly relieved that Sam has found himself, and is no longer in pain. His mother will always remember him as her little girl, consistently misgenders him (not necessarily maliciously), and is concerned about his well-being, compared to his sister who stayed in Coburg and got married. His sister wonders why he never confided in her, when they shared a bedroom growing up. And his brother-in-law is transphobic.

Escaping the family, Sam seeks solace with Katherine.

This is a Elliot Page vehicle, inspired by his life. The direction allows him to casually show off his boy bod. This answers the question "where are they now"? However, after this autobiographical-inspired story, I am wondering what other projects he will appear in.

Using available-light photography lost one star by me. Too often, the subjects were shot with a background of a bright window, making it to hard to see facial expressions.

Don't believe the overall rating, most of the 1 star reviews must be from transphobic viewers. This is a brilliantly acted, very moving movie. They don't attempt to idealize a lifestyle or make it look picture perfect. It's raw it's gritty and it very beautifully done. I'm so impressed by the entire cast, they provide a perspective from many different view points. If you can watch this with someone queer in your life, it might help you connect to them better. Elliot Page deserved much more praise for this role, I hope his star continues to grow. I think it's a must watch for families going through similar things.

I'd heard some wonderful things about this film from those around me, and at my local art theater. Knowing this was a personal story for Elliot Page, I went in otherwise blind, wanting to see the results for better or worse-- and in spite of the post-festival IMDb rating (4.4/10 as of Sept. 2024).

The film is clearly a personal one, from the opening scene. The low budget is on display, but this is entirely a compliment: character actors you might recognize from other things are made to feel like real people, in a real family, in a real house. Visually, not a lot happens. There are no fistfights, there are no fancy camera tricks. The camera instead focused on the emotions of the characters, focusing on faces, and sometimes just the eyes. If you let yourself feel what the characters are feeling, the film is as rewarding as it is eye-opening.

It can be uncomfortable. It can be confusing. It can be confrontational-- but ultimately this is simply Sam's (Page) story, from his perspective. His own emotional journey, not just over the course of the film, but how every day, Sam is just a person, living his life. It was indeed uncomfortable to experience some of the things that might be normal every day occurrences for Sam, but seeing things from someone else's perspective is why we go to the movies. I'm glad that Page and director Dominic Savage (who absolutely has a bona fide resume) got to tell this story, and I'm glad I was there to watch them both tell it. Not all of the characters are sure what to do with Sam, and some try harder than others, but no one ever feels entirely where they should be. It is a movie of the moment, and captures-- what I can only assume-- the current moment perfectly. 8/10, watch it with someone you care about.

Elliot Page plays the character of Sam, a person who has undergone a personal journey to discover his true gender identity. Page is in fine form here, perhaps the best I've seen him in his career, in a role that feels lived in and drawn from real experience.

There are two separate stories running concurrently throughout Close To You. One concerns a family gathering Sam has some hesitation to attend, the other concerns a chance meeting he encounters on his travels with an old flame. The former situation delivers much of the film's finest moments including Sam's attempts to re-connect with members of his immediate family, with the most memorable interactions are between him and his parents. Of course, no family gathering would be complete without at least one antagonizing in-law, and ultimately Sam must confront this individual's passive-aggressive and overt transphobia head on.

I hesitate to call the re-connection with his old flame a sub-plot, it actually takes up at least as much screen time as the family drama. There's just less to grab onto here to make it nearly as compelling. Their relationship could have benefited from more backstory to give the audience a better understanding of their history together (was their younger romance secretive, for example?). As it is this portion is quite bland, nothing to lift it from anything more than a conventional romance.

While it has flashes of genuine and heartfelt emotion Close To You ends up not as impactful as it perhaps hoped to be. The script feels meandering in many spots and I'm not surprised to discover the dialogue was mostly improvised. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sam's is an important story to tell, but I can only marginally recommend this film at best.