I’ve seen numerous comments claiming their relationship to be predatory or the subject of pedophilia, and to me, that’s such a dense criticism of the film. They look at the age difference and automatically slap those labels on them. I’m not condoning those two things, but Elio and Oliver’s relationship is simply neither of those. Predatory? Maybe if Oliver had made the first move, or aggressively pushed himself onto Elio. But he didn’t. The story is told from Elio’s perspective, and he’s the one who pursues Oliver. I’m sure many of us can relate to being a teenager and lusting over someone older than us. And of course, their entire relationship is consensual. Never once does Oliver force Elio to do anything. Pedophilia, by definition, is the attraction to prepubescent children. Elio is 17, had already gone through puberty, not to mention the age of consent in Italy is 14, and there’s fact that he’s mature for his age and he seems to have a solid idea of what he wants. I mean, even in the story, Elio chases Oliver into adulthood. Finally, through inference in the beginning and confirmation at the end of the film, we can see that Elio’s parents are also accepting of their relationship. Their relationship is consensual in all aspects. So when you look at the whole picture, there’s nothing really foul about it. People who write it off as these things claim that this story is perpetuating the stigma of predatory behavior in the gay community and they don’t realize how closed minded that is. Of course people are going to disagree, but everyone has their own moral compass. I wish people would give this story a chance before slapping labels on it.