This is the genius of the film. It refuses to offer a "happy" ending, but it offers a true ending. Mr. Perlman’s monologue to Elio earlier in the film frames the entire experience: "Don’t kill the pain, because with it, you kill the joy." Call Me By Your Name argues that it is better to have felt the devastating loss of love than to have never felt anything at all.
The narrative shifts from an objectifying gaze to an "entangled" interaction. Call Me By Your Name
Unlike many queer films that focus on the closet as a place of terror, Call Me By Your Name suggests that the closet is simply a historical fact. Elio and Oliver’s love thrives not despite the secret, but in the secret. The midnight rendezvous, the notes slipped under doors, the days of silence followed by nights of passion—these are romanticized because they are forbidden. It is a complex take that has drawn criticism (the 17/24 age gap, specifically), but it remains a fascinating artifact of pre-internet, pre-Stonewall-remembrance society. This is the genius of the film