Film Review: "Love, Simon"

Director and producer Greg Berlanti returns to the director’s chair for the first time since his 2010 film, Life as We Know It, to direct the new teen rom-com, Love, Simon. It is a historic film as it marks the first time a major studio has backed a teen rom-com with a gay character as the lead. It is a film that is far from perfect, but it is an incredible first step towards being more inclusive. The film stars Nick Robinson and features a great cast that includes Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner, Katherine Langford, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and Keiynan Lonsdale.

            Love, Simon opens up with Simon doing a quick voiceover on a montage that details how normal his life is aside from having one “huge-ass secret”. During this montage, we are introduced to all of the key characters in the film. He has a loving family, a tight group of friends and seems to do well in school. Despite all of this, Simon always seems to be at a struggle with himself, almost as if he were walking on eggshells. When Simon finds out that there is another closeted gay student at his school, Simon begins an anonymous online friendship with this person, who he knows simply as Blue. As Simon falls deeper and deeper in love with Blue, he tries to figure out who it might actually. However, when his emails with Blue leak, Simon is forced to come to terms with who he is while also facing those closest to him.

            One of the best things about this film is its cast. The chemistry that the cast has with each other is great and really helps carry the film. Simon’s parents in particular (played by Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner) are a ton of fun to watch and help provide Simon with moments of levity amidst all the chaos. This film also really emphasizes the impact of social media and how it could affect someone’s life, both positively and negatively.  Love, Simon also provides a very clever mystery plot where Simon is trying to figure out who Blue is in real life. The film does a very good job in keeping the audience guessing throughout the duration of movie by providing plenty of red herrings.

While Love, Simon is a lot of fun, it does also have a lot of issues. Some of the dialogue comes across as odd and doesn’t sound at all like teenagers would speak. While that’s not the case for the entire film, it happens enough times to where it becomes a problem the longer the film goes. Tonally, the film is kind of uneven. It constantly jumps around from being serious to being severely cheesy and over-the-top. Love, Simon ends up feeling like this totally unrealistic world where every single character in this film lives in enormous houses. This would be fine if there was a purpose to that, but there wasn’t. The film could be more relatable if the characters didn’t have such outlandish lives.

The best way to describe this film is actually found in a line from the movie itself. In the first post we see from Blue he describes his life as a ferris wheel where one minute he is on top of the world and the next he is at the very bottom of it. The same can be said for Love, Simon. There are moments of sheer beauty that can move you to tears. There is a scene where Simon confronts the person who leaked his emails that is so raw and emotional that it serves as an example of what this movie really could have been. For all of its faults, however, Love, Simon still manages to be fun and entertaining while delivering an important message to the audience. This film is the first of its kind when it comes to being backed by a major studio and I sincerely hope it’s not the last. These stories matter and deserve to be told to mass audiences. 

            Overall, Love, Simon is a solid film that sits at a 70% for me.