Film Review: Love, Simon

Love, Simon is a film that would be easy to underestimate. In all the best ways, it’s a typical high school romance flick, complete with a secret admirer and that universal quest to find yourself.
Except that the protagonist of Love, Simon is gay. That is to say, the lead character – not the sidekick or best friend or comic relief – of a mainstream, studio rom-com, is gay. This may seem unexceptional, and the truth is it should be – but it’s not. It’s overdue, it’s deeply important to LGBTQ kids who have never before been represented – and it’s gorgeous.

Directed by Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, Dawson’s Creek), Love, Simon stars Nick Robinson as Simon Spears, an average, middle class high school kid with great friends and a liberal family. He is liked and loved and happy – but he’s not out yet. Not because he’s ashamed or afraid, just intimidated at the prospect of change. Figuring out who are you in your final year of high school is hard enough without dealing with other people’s perceptions of you.
But when a pseudonym-protected student comes out via a school blog, he and Simon strike up an email correspondence and fall for each other, within the safety and intimacy that can come with anonymity.

The simple beauty of Love, Simon’s screenplay is that the film’s conflict doesn’t come from Simon being gay; it’s that he has a secret and he is terrified of losing it. And the film understands him, and its other characters. Simon endlessly, understandably, adorably speculates on who his virtual love could be. An awkward, insecure bully violates Simon’s trust, believing that friendship and romance can be transactional. Simon’s parents (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel, both endearing) love him fiercely, but react to his coming out clumsily, and are wracked with guilt for letting him down.

Love, Simon is sweet, relatable and funny. It’s witty and accessible, and also conventional and very normal. That normality is important. Representing gay teens is important. Because everyone deserves to imagine themselves as a romantic hero, who gets the happy ever after.