Love, Simon

Hollywood has been adapting a wide variety of Young Adult teen romance stories lately, but in my opinion, Love, Simon is the first one to score a genuine home run.  This is just such a likable movie, filled with winning performances, a big heart, and a great sense of humor that aids the drama of the main character's situation, instead of conflicting with it.  It's the kind of movie that you want to tell your friends to see as soon as it's over, and possibly see again yourself.

If I may nitpick (I am a critic, after all.  It comes with the territory.), the movie is a bit conventional at times, and certain plot elements and the way the film wraps itself up is a bit too neat and tidy.  But these faults are minor in comparison to just how much this movie works.  And the reason why it works is because the screenplay (credited to Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger from TV's This is Us, adapting from the novel by Becky Albertalli) knows the teen comedy-drama genre inside out.  There are the smart, well-spoken teen heroes, the sweet but somewhat out of touch parents, the kind of clueless Vice Principal, the big party scene, the hidden feelings and secret longings...Yes, we've seen it all before, but seldom this well.  This movie loves these characters, and knows how to make it so that their personality comes through rather than the cliches.  These are all fascinating characters, right down to the minor supporting ones who manage to stand out bigger than you expect.  This is simply one of the most sweetly funny and sharp teen movies I've seen in a while.

At the center is Simon Spier, who is played with endless charm by Nick Robinson from Jurassic World.  Simon is a High School Senior living a pretty average life in an Atlanta suburb.  His mom and dad (Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner) are happily married after 20 years, and are just as much in love as they were when they met back in college.  His little sister (Talitha Bateman) is an aspiring chef, and frequently uses her family as guinea pigs for her culinary experiments.  Simon enjoys hanging out with his best friends, drinks too much ice coffee (his own admission in the film's opening narration), loves watching bad movies from the 90s and collecting vinyl music.  Simon comes across as a perfectly well-adjusted kid, but he's hiding a secret from everyone, in that he is gay, and just doesn't know how to properly come out and express how he feels.  He's certain his parents would understand, he just doesn't know the right way to break the news to them.  Plus, he just doesn't want to shake up his ideal life.

We see how Simon learned he was gay in a sweetly funny flashback when he was 13, and became obsessed with Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter films.  It's been four years since then, and he's been unable to tell anyone.  His three best friends are the sweet Leah (Katherine Langford), soccer jock Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and the new girl Abby (Alexandra Shipp), who moved to town just last year, but has already become so close to Simon that he feels like he's known her his whole life.  Again, Simon is not afraid that his secret would affect their friendship.  He just is unsure of how and the proper time to tell them.  But then, he sees a posting on a message board by an anonymous classmate identified as "Blue", who opens up on line about his sexuality.  This sparks something within Simon.  He has to get in touch with this kid, and share his own personal feelings about coming out.

Simon and "Blue" begin communicating through e-mails, and both begin expressing things that they have never told anyone.  This leads to the film's key mystery, as Simon tries to figure out the identity of his online friend.  He has some hunches as to who "Blue" might be, and when he reads the e-mails in his head, he can sometimes visualize who he thinks the person is behind the e-mails sitting at their desk and writing to him.  At different times, Simon visualizes "Blue" as a kid in his class, a cute waiter at the local Waffle House, or perhaps the guy who plays the piano for the school musical production of Cabaret.  However, both are afraid to reveal their identities to one another, or to meet in person.  Simon seems a bit more sure in meeting face-to-face, but even he has some doubts.  Where the movie goes from here, I will not reveal, but it does involve the one character in the film that does not work - a social outcast (Logan Miller) who becomes kind of a bully to Simon, and whose character arc is a bit too all over the place to work, as the movie never seems sure if we are supposed to hate him or sympathize with him.

But again, it's hard to complain here, because there's just so much about Love, Simon that works so effortlessly.  All of the other performances hit the perfect note, and there's hardly a wrong step among them.  And while the romantic mystery is the main drive, it's the light comedy that keeps us entertained.  Of particular note is Tony Hale as a Vice Principal who comes across as a bit of a buffoon at first, but he gradually develops into a truly funny and charming character as the film goes on.  Also very funny is the priceless Natasha Rothwell, who plays the school's frustrated drama teacher.  It's characters like these that keep things interesting outside of the central plot, and prevent the film from being too heavy-handed or cliched at times.

But above all else, this is a joyful film filled with life.  As Simon grows in self-awareness about his situation, all of the freedom and confusion that he feels is wonderfully portrayed by both Robinson in his performance and the sharp dialogue that the script provides him with.  Even when the movie relies on sitcom devices, such as fantasy sequences where Simon visualizes what college life will be like with him having come out, it still remains entertaining because the cast and director Greg Berlanti treat the material with respect.  You can tell that a lot of thought and care has gone into bringing these people to life, as well as in the creative process, and it shows in nearly every scene.  Even if it stumbles from time to time, we're still smiling, because we love these people.  When you see as many movies as I do, you start to cherish the ones that are filled with people you actually would like to know in real life.

Love, Simon is getting a lot of attention for being the first mainstream Hollywood movie about a gay teenage relationship, and while that alone is impressive, it fortunately doesn't have to fall back on that to grab our attention.  It's filled with wit, heart and emotion, and is genuinely enthralling in so many ways.  Maybe the movie plays it a bit too safe in some ways, but when you smile this much while watching a movie, nothing else really matters.

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