"Close" is certainly an interesting film, covering numerous intriguing topics such as growing up, young friendship/love, toxic gender roles, estrangement, as well as mental health. However, I found myself bored for long stretches of the runtime. This was not due to the young lead actor, Eden Dambrine. He does a solid job. In terms of production, too, everything is competently filmed and accompanied by a fitting score.

However, I was very annoyed by the way the dialogues were written. There is never any real communication. There is a lot of silence between the characters, which drags everything out because no one is really talking to each other. The estrangement between the two 13-year-old best friends, Léo and Rémi, which takes place mainly in the first few minutes of the film, also failed to convince me. Even between the two, communication is mostly non-verbal. No wonder that after the tragic twist, no one really knows why all this actually happened.

Despite all my criticism, you certainly can watch "Close" without hesitation. Sadly, it failed to take me along emotionally. But in my theater, I noticed that some people shed a tear or two. In the end, it surely depends on how well you can immerse yourself in the setting. I at least didn't feel transported back to the time when I was 13 years old.