I Carry You With Me – Movie Review

Warning as this review has a bit of a spoiler.

I Carry You with Me is a rare film that’s both intimate and epic. A beautifully poetic film that spans decades and countries in telling a love story between two men, Iván and Gerardo. The film is a hybrid, somewhere between documentary and drama as it depicts the decades long love story.We see Iván and Gerardo in present day and in real-life and then fictionalized versions of their younger selves. Flashing forward and backwards in time we see their lives play out against a sea of time of space. The film is the first fiction film from Heidi Ewing best known for making documentaries like Jesus Camp and Detropia. Ewing’s documentary sensibilities serve her well adding a richness and depth to what could’ve been a simple relationship drama.

Present day Iván is a celebrated chef living in New York City getting ready to open a new restaurant. In flashbacks we see him some 20 years younger living in Mexico. He struggles to make a life for himself working menial jobs and is not only in the closet but has a son. Too afraid that if he comes out he will not be allowed to see his son Iván resigns himself to living a lie. One night a friend takes him to a gay bar where he meets Gerardo. The two have an instant connection, the kind where you can talk and completely lose track of time and before you know it the sun is rising and you realize that maybe you’ve never really lived before.

Meanwhile Iván dreams of a better life in America. Maybe he can finally become a chef, maybe he can finally be true to himself. But the prospect of leaving his son holds him back and now maybe so does Gerardo. Part love story, part immigration story the film is about discovering who we are, what we leave behind and what or who we carry with us. I had a chance to see the film last year at the virtual edition of the New York Film Festival and was thrilled to watch it again for review, my only regret is not having seen it on the big screen, something I would urge all readers to do if they can.