Elliot Page’s Poignant Performance Is Overshadowed By Story Threads That Don’t Mesh

Directed by Dominic Savage, Close to You marks Elliot Page’s return to the big screen after a seven-year hiatus — and it’s an incredibly welcome return. There’s simply no understating that fact. A family drama-meets-unrequited-love-story, Close to You offers its star a chance to remind us why Elliot Page is an Oscar-nominated actor, as it allows him to embody all things tough and tender. There’s wit, vulnerability, strength, and a searing authenticity to Page’s portrayal of Sam, a trans man who ventures to his hometown for the first time in years.

While he has been absent from feature roles in front of the camera, Elliot Page served as an executive producer on narratives and documentaries, including Backspot and Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, and appeared in TV shows, like Tales of the City and the fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy. While it’s fun to see Page playing roles like Viktor Hargreeves or using his platform to amplify other voices, it’s equally gratifying to watch him play a character whose lived experiences resonate, at least in part, with his own.

Elliot Page Returns To The Big Screen With A Career-Best Dramatic Performance

Close To You captures its main character’s lived experiences with nuance and authenticity

In speaking with The Guardian, Page remarked that shooting Close to You was “a highlight of my life as an actor” — and it’s easy to see why. In the film’s opening moments, Sam stares out his bedroom window, watching the world from behind glass. Over breakfast, he tells his roommate, Emily (Sook-Yin Lee), that he’s nervous about leaving their home in Toronto to visit his family. For Sam, the very idea of going to his family’s house was riddled with burdens, frustrations, and emotional labor.

Although well-intentioned, his family members seem to require pats on the back for merely respecting his existence. Intention isn’t the same as impact — something queer and trans folks know all too well. On the train ride, Sam runs into his former crush, Katherine (Hillary Baack), who’s now married with children. The two have a pleasant yet strained interaction; clearly, there’s a lot that’s gone unsaid, but deeply felt. Although Sam has a few other meaningful run-ins with Katherine, most of the film centers on celebrating Sam’s father, Jim (Peter Outerbridge), who winds up being Sam’s greatest ally and supporter.

While Sam’s soon-to-be brother-in-law Paul (David Reale) is the most overtly transphobic character, Sam’s siblings and mother, Miriam (Wendy Crewson), underscore a different kind of trauma. Sam’s sister, Kate (Janet Porter), regurgitates a tired but all-too-real talking point, announcing that she can’t believe she and Sam shared a room while growing up and that she didn’t really know him. Kate tells Sam that everyone, especially their parents, are worried about him and his prospects in Toronto.

“When I was the most unwell, no one f***ing worried,” Sam tells his sister. It’s cathartic to hear Page express these truths so precisely and honestly within the relative safety of a feature-length film. Page perfectly captures that terrible, sinking realization that comes with knowing that your family didn’t truly worry about you when you weren’t okay. It was easier to overlook Sam’s unhappiness because at least his story fit their own narratives.

It’s incredibly powerful to see these scenes play out onscreen, even when they’re weighty. When Paul goes on a rant about needing to obey the “rules” related to Sam’s identity, Sam has no problem calling Paul out. Of course, it’s frustrating that none of his siblings step in. It’s even more frustrating when Sam’s mom suggests giving Paul a second chance — the opportunity to apologize. “I don’t have to just ignore it,” Sam reminds his family. That’s something many supposed allies need to not just hear, but sit with.

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Close To You Can’t Overcome Its Narrative & Pacing Issues

The film boasts some memorable scenes, but it keeps viewers at arm’s length

Despite Page’s stunning performance, Close to You falters in some big ways. Reportedly, a lot of the conversations were improvised, which leaves room for a lot of dead space and redundancy. That’s not necessarily untrue of life, but it certainly drags down the scenes in terms of pacing and engagement.

And then there’s the movie’s other thread — Sam’s reunion with Katherine, the woman he loved in his youth. Despite both actors’ charms, there isn’t believable romantic chemistry between them. In part, that’s because Katherine is little more than a sketch — a character who reminds you that they are, in fact, a character, because they just seem dropped into the plot of a film for the sake of its beats. Of course, Baack does her best with the scant material.

Often, Close to You tries to blend two separate films into one narrative. Sam floats back and forth between his family and Katherine, but it never feels like the threads are part of the same tapestry. The family drama plot is the stronger of the two, the more fully realized and nuanced, but the movie insists on using Sam and Katherine’s relationship as bookends. It’s powerful that Sam always felt safe and close to Katherine, even pre-physical transition, but I can’t help but wonder if a family member could have better served that emotional journey.

Close to You begins and ends with Sam at a window. While Page’s beautifully nuanced and searingly felt performance will stick with me, the movie as a whole feels like something I watched through a window myself — one with frosted-over panes that, try as I might, I couldn’t scrape clean for a clearer, closer view of the story playing out on my screen.

Close to You is in select theaters nationwide on August 16, followed by a release in the UK and Canada on August 23.

2.5

Close to You is a drama film by director Dominic Savage and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023. Sam returns four years after his transition to visit his father for his birthday in Canada, fearing what level of acceptance he’ll receive. However, a chance encounter with an old friend from high school forces Sam to confront his past.

Pros

• Elliot Page delivers an outstanding, nuanced performance
• Sam’s relationship with his supportive father is nicely highlighted

Cons

• The film too heavily relies on Sam’s relationship with Katherine
• Close to You tries to blend two films into one, but it never fully connects