A Romance That Knows It’s Not Safe

Read Time:5 Minute, 19 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Come Closer
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Genre: Drama, Romance, Psychological
Year Released: 2024, Greenwich Entertainment 2025
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director(s): Tom Nesher
Writer(s): Tom Nesher
Cast: Lia Elalouf, Darya Rosenn, Netta Garti, Yaakov Zada-Daniel, Ido Tako
Where to Watch: on digital January 16, 2026

RAVING REVIEW: What happens when grief doesn’t want to be processed, but instead wants to be felt again and again, no matter the cost? COME CLOSER begins inside that unresolved ache and never pretends there’s a way out of it. Written and directed by Tom Nesher, the film is intensely personal, shaped by loss, and that authenticity bleeds into every creative choice. The story follows Eden, a young woman whose identity has been tethered to her brother, Nati. When he dies suddenly, the rupture isn’t just emotional; it’s existential. Eden doesn’t know who she is without him, and rather than learning how to exist alone, she searches for a way to keep him present by proxy. That search leads her to Maya, the secret girlfriend she never knew existed, and the film’s central relationship is born from that collision of mourning and curiosity.

What makes COME CLOSER so compelling is its refusal to label grief in terms that were used to. Eden doesn’t grieve quietly. She spirals. She invades. She fixates. The film understands that grief, especially in youth, often looks messy, selfish, and contradictory. Eden isn’t always likable, and that’s the point. Nesher isn’t asking the audience to approve of her choices; she’s asking us to recognize the emotional logic behind them.

Lia Elalouf delivers a striking, expressive performance as Eden, one that feels raw without tipping into anguish. Eden moves through the film like a live wire, oscillating between confidence and emotional volatility. Elalouf plays her as someone who weaponizes charm as a survival mechanism, pulling people close before they have time to ask why. It’s a fearless performance that never mitigates Eden’s edges, trusting the audience to sit with discomfort rather than demanding sympathy.

Opposite her, Darya Rosenn’s Maya provides a crucial counterbalance. Where Eden is impulsive and restless, Maya is initially cautious, grounded, and emotionally permeable. Rosenn plays her with vulnerability, making her gradual entanglement with Eden feel tragically inevitable rather than naive. Eden’s charisma doesn’t simply seduce Maya; she’s drawn to the promise of shared remembrance, the idea that loving the same person might make loss survivable. The film treats their connection not as scandalous or sensational, but as a genuine attempt to build meaning from absence.

COME CLOSER is at its strongest when it explores how intimacy can become a coping mechanism. Eden and Maya don’t just fall into each other; they construct a shared ecosystem where Nati remains central, almost sacred. Their bond becomes a living memorial, one that blurs the line between love and substitution. Nesher handles this dynamic with remarkable restraint. The film understands how easily grief can masquerade as romance, and how dangerous that confusion can become when neither party is equipped to set boundaries.

Nesher’s background as a journalist and documentarian informs the film’s emotional honesty. There’s a sense that COME CLOSER is less interested in momentum than emotional accumulation. The story doesn’t rush toward resolution; it lingers in ambiguity, allowing contradictions to coexist. Eden can be magnetic and destructive in the same breath. Maya can be empowered by desire and undone by it. The film never simplifies those truths for comfort.

Some secondary characters feel underdeveloped, functioning more as emotional foils than fully realized people. While this keeps the focus tightly on Eden and Maya, it also limits the film’s texture. The world outside their relationship sometimes feels muted, as if everything else exists only to serve their bond.

The emotional payoff is undeniable. COME CLOSER doesn’t offer closure in the traditional sense, because it understands that grief rarely grants it. Instead, the film leaves us with the recognition that love born from loss carries its own risks, and that clinging too tightly to the past can quietly sabotage the future. Nesher isn’t interested in moral judgment. She’s interested in emotional truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable.

As Israel’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards and a winner of the Viewpoints Award at Tribeca, COME CLOSER represents a confident debut from a filmmaker unafraid to expose her own wounds on screen. It’s a film that trusts its audience to engage with complexity rather than being consumed by catharsis, and that trust pays off in a deeply affecting experience.

COME CLOSER is intimate, volatile, and brave. It understands that grief doesn’t move in straight lines, and that sometimes love isn’t a cure but a detour that feels necessary in the moment. While it occasionally lingers too long in its own haze, the film’s emotional precision, fearless performances, and thematic honesty make it a powerful exploration of loss, desire, and the dangerous comfort of not letting go.

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[photo courtesy of GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT]

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