Review of Love, Simon (2018) by James R — 18 Mar 2018

A great story about a young man coming out and the pressures of being a gay teenager in today's society. Simon (Nick Robinson) is an average teen that has a pretty great life. His mother (Jennifer Garner) and father (Josh Duhamel) are very supportive and loving.

He has a sister that he actually likes and loves. His closest friends are also very great people too we have his two childhood friends Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) have known him since he was 5 years old.

Their newest addition to the crew is Abby (Alexandra Shipp) who is pretty damn cool. Pretty perfect life right? Well...Simon as you may have known from the trailer is gay, but hasn't told anyone. The film follows Simon through his senior year of high school where he begins to email a mysterious person from school calling themselves "Blue" who announces on a school board that he himself is a closeted gay teenager as well.

Simon immediately has a connection with Blue and spends the year trying to find out who Blue is while also dealing with his own eventual coming out to the ones he loves the most. First and foremost Nick Robinson did a fantastic job here.

I really cared for his characters and I enjoyed the chemistry between his friends and him throughout the film. It's very believable...to a point and I'll get to that in a moment. The movie has some great moments that are reminiscent of a teen coming of age tale, but with the obvious twist.

When Simon eventually comes out to his family I found it was some incredible and touching scenes. The gripe I have is that the movie is still very predictable. From the first ten minutes I was able to figure out how the film would end.

Blue's identity for me was a complete mystery though and I enjoyed that eventual payoff. The movie gets a bit too convenient for the last 20 minutes that I didn't enjoy as much and even had some seemingly forced dialogue (looking at you Abby and Nick awkward dialogue).

Overall, still a great film that I hope people give a chance regardless of your sexual orientation. It's a great coming of age movie and a great look into the life of someones life that's different than the supposed "norm.

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