Alex and Henry's Texts: A Progression in Proximity
I've been thinking on and off about how the film chronicles subtle changes in Alex and Henry's bond in the time between the end of the "damage control" and the New Year's party, finally leading into the kiss. Not so much about the texts and calls themselves, which I already found adorable on my first watch. More on how Henry becomes more and more prominent, more and more visible and tangible, in Alex's thoughts each time they talk. More on how the film worked out the transitions for each sequence.
The early texts ("having a wank", "inbreeding", "we were ever so careful, dear") are featured prominently on the screen, no sound besides that of a text notification. You see cute, fun gifs, memes and the occasional (mpreg!) article link, but at this point they're just tiptoeing into this tentative friendship, and learning about each other.
Henry's texts start out as a mere part of Alex's day at this point; he reacts, texts him back and moves on with his day. And even that changes quite quickly - he's amused enough by Henry's "we were so careful" joke that he forgets where he is and laughs out loud in a classroom full of people.
The transition then moves onto voice. Not only do we see the texts on the screen, but this time we hear them in their own voices.
We hear Henry heighten his voice a little when he says "grey is a colour, thank you". We hear Henry's amusement when he asks about Alex "pranking" him with campaign t-shirts.
The "boring tie" exchange also marks the first time we see Henry (not the image, but the person) during the texting exchange. He is static, unmoving, in the periphery of Alex's vision, disappearing as his security detail runs past the bench Henry is sitting on.
Henry may not be the center of attention in this sequence, but Alex is familiar enough, and comfortable enough that he can easily visualize Henry. The way he sits, the way he talks, the way he peruses a book.
We hear their voices overlap as they discuss favourite authors and books, while a classmate shows Alex a meme about their "bromance" (I have some ideas about those literary references in particular, but maybe I'll keep that for another post*).
You also have the "Byron" sequence, which is a continuation of the favourite authors one, and highlights a marked shift from the "Boring Tie" one. Boring Tie shows movement from Alex, with Henry sitting stationary, in one place, on the bench.
Byron has Henry moving around in Alex's space. Still at the periphery of Alex's vision, but ever-present and slowly taking up more and more space in his head.
(I'm not saying anything about the poet being Byron and the movie Nora and Alex are watching being "Some Like It Hot" right now. I'm still in the middle of my second read of the book and I want to note down all the references I saw there too. The dialogue "well, nobody's perfect!" from SLIH's last scene is currently ringing in my head).
In a lot of ways the Parenthesis sequence is the perfect segue to the New Year's party, because it strongly implies a level of intimacy that was only hinted at in the previous texts (the book itself has Alex envision him and Henry as lying on the opposite sides of their own beds, like brackets, in this scene).
Henry first features in this sequence as a tinny, distant voice 3700 miles away, but his voice and his presence now comes so easily to him (with a butterfly transition!! Butterflies in the stomach anyone?) that it is almost as if he is in the room, comfortably settled in Alex's private space, so close that Alex can almost touch him. And they really do look like parantheses at the end of that scene!
Henry's presence is intimate and tangible (we even see the jaffa cakes he's snacking on while watching Bake Off), and his voice comes to Alex as if they were in the same room together.
Only when they playfully argue over who should cut the call first, does Henry's voice change back to the tinny quality of a voice over cellphone...reminding them both of the distance between them.
And that last, super-soft look Alex gives as he switches off the phone with a "goodnight"! My heart!!
In a lot of ways, I think that while Alex himself is clueless about his own feelings, it's pretty obvious to us, the viewer, the "rope" that is pulling him towards Henry is already making an appearance here.
* Henry's Book Recommendations:
Zadie Smith (probably her entire bibliography)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Alex's Book Recommendations:
Another Country by James Baldwin
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(My (tentative) theory for now is that the books explore themes that are important to both of them and that get touched on in the movie. I know the book goes into more detail with literature and history, esp during the email exchanges, but I've only read the book twice)
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