Close to you
A thirty-five-year-old single father and window cleaner, John is an Irishman with only a few months to live. Preparing for what's ahead, he spends most of his time trying to find a new family for his three-year-old son, Michael. Caught between the need to say goodbye, the protective instinct, and an impossible decision, he will seek the assistance of Social Services employees, especially Shona.
Emotional without falling into sentimentality, "Close to you." thrives on a discreet, simple and effective script, which has no pretensions beyond telling a story as realistically as possible. It is a piece that successfully avoids falling into drama, and deals with fatherhood, death and the father-son relationship with accurate but soft stitches.
Edificant in its own way, it is a modest story told in a special way, which draws from the fatalism of Italian neorealism (Vittorio De Sica), as well as from the close and documentary technique of British (Mike Leigh) and European (Dardenne brothers) social cinema.
The film's premise, perhaps a bit hackneyed and lends itself to pocket melodrama, is maintained thanks to a sober, careful and clear-sighted technique, which reveals the humanity of its characters. It is the actors and the small details of everyday life that give the film a realistic and engaging quality.
Thus, we find an enormous James Norton (Little Women, War and Peace)A creditable acting and directing performance with his son, Daniel Lamont, and an anecdotal accompaniment by Eileen O'Higgins (Shona) that helps to channel the audience's empathy for the impending and produce compassion for the inevitable, which weighs on the simple moments and overflows in the few characteristically emotional moments (last wishes, last moments) that are well chosen and wisely not overplayed.
Former investment banking employee, and nephew of Luchino Visconti, Uberto Pasolini is a multi-award winning director, screenwriter and producer who directs and writes this critically acclaimed social work (his third film as director). A film close to a documentary, direct, that handles emotions well without falling into sentimentality, and whose actors and moments are perfectly matched, creating a memorable film.
