So much about Love, Simon is commonplace, and this warm-hearted rom-com wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m just like you,” high-school senior Simon Spier (Nick Robinson, Everything Everything) informs viewers at the beginning of the film, after listing his utterly average credentials. He lives in the Atlanta suburbs with his supportive parents (Mother’s Day’s Jennifer Garner and Transformers: The Last Knight’s Josh Duhamel) and precocious younger sister (Talitha Bateman, Geostorm). He boasts a close-knit group of friends, including his childhood best pal Leah (Katherine Langford, TV’s 13 Reasons Why), the soccer-mad Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Spider-Man Homecoming) and newcomer Abby (Alexandra Shipp, X-Men: Apocalypse). He’s counting down the days until he’s off to college, and, like everyone his age, he’s yearning for romance.
There’s a caveat attached to Simon’s declaration of ordinariness, however. “I have one huge-ass secret,” he explains. He’s gay, he hasn’t told anyone, and with his woes at its centre, Love, Simon breaks ground by becoming the first mainstream romantic comedy with a gay teenage protagonist. It’s an extraordinary achievement in terms of representation, in a film that knows that such a feat really shouldn’t be. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Political Animals), and scripted by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker (writers on television series This Is Us) from Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Love, Simon frames its narrative in such a standard way because that’s how this type of storyline ought to be presented — and routinely and frequently, for that matter.
After Simon shares his plight with the audience, he finds someone else to unburden his situation to: “Blue”, the pseudonym used by a classmate on the school blog. When Blue posts that he’s gay but no one knows it, Simon adopts his own pen name, gets in contact and sparks a flurry of candid email correspondence. If he’s not incessantly checking his phone for new replies, he’s wondering who his new friend could be — the popular Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale, The Flash)? Waffle house employee Lyle (Joey Pollari, American Crime)? Cal (Miles Heizer, another 13 Reasons Why alum), who he’s working with on the school musical? Along the way, Simon swiftly falls for his epistolary paramour, while agreeing to help the unpopular Martin (Logan Miller, The Walking Dead) strike a chord with Abby, but only under the threat of being outed.
If John Hughes was still alive and making movies, Love, Simon could’ve easily fit into the writer/director’s oeuvre. It’s filled with familiar coming-of-age milestones, developments and emotions, and characters that could’ve easily jumped from Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off into the 21st century. That’s part of Berlanti’s purposeful approach, creating the kind of movie that Simon and generations of queer teenagers have never had. Alas, it also exposes the film’s formula, though it skips from one obvious moment to the next with such sincerity and affection — and in such a visually crisp and clear manner — that viewers are unlikely to mind. The same can be said for the supporting teacher characters (played by Veep’s Tony Hale and Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell), who prove endearing even when bordering on cartoonish.
Indeed, Love Simon’s upbeat tone prevails, seeping through when Simon is surreptitiously ogling the landscaper next door, when he’s agonising over his next email and when he’s dreaming about what life will be like out of the closet (cue a Whitney Houston-soundtracked dance number that’s brimming with exuberance). Heartfelt but still naturalistic sweetness is also evident in the film’s performances: Robinson plays Simon with the right balance of conflict, vulnerability and confidence, a young man sure of who he is but unsure of how to express it; Garner and Duhamel paint his parents with delicate, realistic understanding. Significantly, however, all of the above contributes to a movie about a LGBTIQ protagonist — and romance — that eschews darkness, tragedy and gloom. Love, Simon is filled with love and recognition as it takes the high school rom-com template into new Hollywood territory, and it charms in the process.
★★★☆
Love, Simon
Director: Greg Berlanti
USA, 2018, 110 mins
Release date: 29 March
Distributor: Fox
Rated: M
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