This movie was adapted from Simon vs. Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Although I feel that I'm getting too old for teen movies, I always enjoy watching them. That's why I decided to stream the well praised Love, Simon this afternoon. First things first, Simon, is a senior in high school with loving parents and a stable group of friends. This guy has a completely ordinary life...Except that he is hiding a secret: He is gay.
There's a blog where people from his school write (anonymously or not) gossip posts and confessions. One of them caught Simon's eye, as it was a message which addressed the same issue as Simon's: being closeted. He immediately emailed the guy, who only signed as Blue, and they soon start a conversation, which keeps going even though they remain unknown to each other.
While using the school library's computer to answer one of Blue's emails, Simon is interrupted by the vice-principal and, trying to end their interaction, he goes away without logging off. Martin, a drama club classmate with poor social skills and weird nerdy behavior, comes to use the computer after Simon and ends up reading the whole conversation between the two.
Martin is desperate to win Abby's, one of Simon's friends, attention, so he sees this as an opportunity to blackmail Simon and threatens to expose the emails if he doesn't help him accomplish that. From there, Simon tries his best to keep his sexuality from being revealed even if it means he has to act against his wishes. He also has to deal with confusing scenarios, his friends' love problems and above all, trying to figure out who Blue is and if they'd ever meet in person.
So, I never have great expectations towards a teen movie in terms of being realistic. I know they're generally quite flawed and this was no exception. I think it would have been better if the teachers at Simon's school were not so over the top - I'm not American, but I'm sure they don't go around randomly talking to students in the hallways and taking phones away from their hands like the one in this movie did. Also the bullying situation in the cafeteria when the drama teacher intervene with an inappropriate posture and language made me cringe. I get that it's a movie and sometimes situations are exaggerated, but this could easily be avoided. It'd make no difference to the story if these two characters behaved normally.
I was also confused by the whole shared blog thing as I've never encountered something like that in real life. But I get it - The two had to meet somewhere anonymously.
Martin's character is way too much. I think it'd been more believable if instead of a bizarre kid the person who'd seen the emails was one of the bullies, who rarely made an appearance. Also, I don't think I'd forget to sign off my email account, specially regarding something as important as this.
One thing that annoyed me in the beginning of the movie and that I've seen before is making family plans early in the day to do the more mundane of activities in the evening, in this case, watching TV. I mean... Do people really do this? But anyway, his parents are the cliché liberal parents who are caring and supportive but don't make a big deal if he sleeps in the same room with his female best friend and gets home drunk. I didn't dislike them (although Simon's dad jokes are terrible) but I feel that I've seen them before too many times. Yeah, that's one of the problems with teen movies.
However, despite these flaws, Love, Simon has good intentions. I've seen other films with main gay characters but this is the first mainstream teen comedy to feature one and I think that's important and well fitted in today's society. The movie is very entertaining and although it become more obvious in the end, I liked how throughout the film they made it difficult to find out who Blue was. In general I enjoyed the characters and the acting. I recommend it for people who enjoy a cute teen movie from time to time!
Rate: 3/5
Rate: 3/5
