Love, Simon

             I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this film.  Because of what the main character goes through, so much of it was awkward, painful, and uncomfortable to watch, especially when the character Martin was on the screen.  Then, all of a sudden, those moments lessened and Love, Simon turned into a really great film.  A film I think is important for people to see. 

                Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) has a secret.  He’s gay.  No one knows this.  Not his family.  Not his friends.  Absolutely no one.  In order to finish his senior year as the guy everyone has known him as throughout his life, Simon decides he’s going to keep this secret to himself.  After that it’s unclear as to what he will do, but for now he will stay as the Simon everyone has known for so long.  It is a post by the anonymous “Blue” that changes everything.

                On the school’s social media page, Blue posts that he is gay.  Inspired, Simon e-mails Blue using the pseudonym of “Jacques”.  Back and forth they write each other, creating a good relationship between them.  Soon Simon is on the hunt to find out who Blue is in real life.  Anyone Simon suspects to be Blue he develops feelings for.  He also experiences the disappointment when he turns out to be wrong.

                Still, despite not knowing who Blue is, things are going well for Simon.  Then another student, Martin (Logan Miller), comes across Simon and Blue’s e-mails in the school library.  Having had a crush on Simon’s friend Abby (Alexandra Shipp) for a while, Martin takes screenshots of Simon’s e-mails and threatens to let everyone know about them if Simon doesn’t help him get together with Abby.  Not wanting to ruin his relationship with Blue or have anyone know he is gay, Simon reluctantly agrees to help Martin, even though it means lying to and hurting his friends.   

                Of course, when Martin doesn’t get together with Abby (and embarrasses himself greatly in front of practically the whole school), he goes back on his word.  He posts the e-mails and a message about Simon being gay.  Simon’s sister Nora (Talitha Bateman) tries to help by getting the posts taken down, but the damage has been done.  Simon must come out to his family, which does not go as smoothly with his father (Josh Duhamel) as he would have liked.  Then Blue says he can’t handle the exposure, even though no one knows who he is, and cuts off all contact with Simon.  With his friends mad at him for the lies he told while helping Martin, Simon is all alone.  He must figure out how to get his life back to as normal as possible, all while knowing nothing can ever be quite the same again.

                As I said before, a huge chunk of this movie was awkward, painful, and uncomfortable.  I suspect Simon felt exactly the same way as he struggled to figure out what to do.  He’s at a time in his life where a lot of things are awkward, painful, and uncomfortable.  Then to be holding onto such a big secret at the same time, that just makes it worse.  This is probably why, once the secret did get out, many of those painful moments went away.  By not having his secret to hold onto anymore, Simon had one less thing he had to worry about.  The film then shifted to Simon alone, the things he was going through with his secret being out, and his relationships with different people.  That is when the film really became good.

                While the film is full of good characters (even Martin ends up with a conscience), there is one side character that sticks out to me in particular.  That is Simon’s drama teacher Ms. Albright (Natasha Rothwell).  She says things teachers really shouldn’t say, but I’m sure they want to at times.  This is especially the case when she tells off two boys who are making fun of Simon and another student for being gay.  Instead of saying what was expected, Ms. Albright told those boys the truth about themselves and their bullying ways, and it was about time someone did.

                Since this film is based on a book, it would be interesting to see how similar it is to the film.  Whether it’s similar or not, I truly think this is a film people should see.  It shows what people go through as they try to decide whether or not to come out about their sexuality, and the pain that can happen when someone else decides it for them.  Fortunately, this film has a happy ending.  Sadly, that cannot be said for everyone facing this situation in the world.