The film Love, Simon entered theaters March 16 and blew audiences away with its emotional and serious plotline. Love, Simon consists of emotional music, strong dialogue and believable acting that evokes deep emotion, allowing the audience to feel what the characters feel.
Simon Spier, the main character, is scared to admit that he’s homosexual because he doesn’t want his life to change. Throughout the film, the audience is taken through his journey to accept himself. During his journey many struggles occur, for example, not being accepted by his dad or losing some friends along the way. However, the film offers comfort to the audience by showing that some characters do care.
The film is narrated by Simon who lets the audience know it’s okay to come out at your own time and when you’re ready. Simon emails a mystery man, who is also gay, and they inspire each other to come out to their friends and family. Reassuring, comedic and sentimental are just a few words to describe this film.
The acting and music in this film go hand and hand. For example, once Simon Spier’s secret gets out, the audience sees him extremely emotional towards another character and a sad slow song plays.
Some of the main movie actors are Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner. Robinson plays Simon Spier while Duhamel and Garner play the father and mother. Robinson has acted in many other movies, including Jurassic World and Everything, Everything. Langford plays Leah Burke, Simon’s best friend. She is known from her role as Hannah Baker in the controversial television show 13 Reasons Why. Throughout the entire movie, each actor did an excellent job, making the movie worthwhile to watch.
Love, Simon is rated PG-13 because of its language, themes and sexual references, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The genre of this film is a romantic comedy-drama and is directed by Greg Berlanti. Love, Simon is around 1 hour and 50 minutes long. It has 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 91 percent approval, according to the reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
Love, Simon has created a very positive and influential impact on LGBTQ cinema, according to The Guardian. Love, Simon is the first LGBTQ teen movie that earned a wide release from a major studio, according to The Cut. This film has received large amounts of reviews saying this film has led more and more people to come out and feel comfortable doing so.
After seeing Love, Simon, many people changed their names on Twitter to, “Love, {insert name},” in order to show support, according to The Cut. Also, many have said that without seeing the film they would have never expected to feel safe and secure coming out to the people around them.
The film is based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. The novel is very similar to the film, in terms of characters and plot line–the main difference being the title, according to Goodreads. The book is 303 pages long and was published on April 7, 2015.
In Singapore, the movie was rated R21, restricting its viewership to people over 21, according to Cinemablend. Singapore added this restriction on the movie because of the LGBTQ themes. This restriction prevents teenagers from hearing a message that is most important to hear at this time in their life, especially if they are struggling with their sexual identity.
I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie and take in the meaning. Love, Simon has an organized plotline and without the specific actors in this movie the movie wouldn’t be the same. Out of 5 stars, I give this movie a 4.7. I think showing the relationship between Simon and his father would have bumped the movie to a 5 star rating. This would have shown a more realistic experience, in terms of how hard it can be to come out to your parents and how not everyone is accepted.
