Love, Simon

By: Krista Freego

“My name’s Simon, I’m just like you. For the most part my life is totally normal. My dad is the annoying handsome quarterback who married the hot valedictorian. And, no, they didn’t peak in high school. I have a sister I actually like, not that I’d ever tell her that… So, like I said, I’m just like you. I have a totally perfectly normal life. Except I have one huge-ass secret. Nobody knows I’m gay.” – Simon; Love, Simon

Love, Simon is everything I hoped it would be and more! For those of you who think that Love, Simon is not the movie for you because you are not gay, you are wrong. The main theme of the film is the fear of not being accepted for being who you are, the fear of not being accepted by your friends, not being accepted by your family and not being accepted by the world. “I’m scared. At first, I thought it was a gay thing. But it isn’t. No matter what, announcing who you are to the world is pretty terrifying because what if the world doesn’t like you,” wonders Simon.

Simon (played by Nick Robinson) appears to be your typical seventeen-year-old high school senior. Simon has three close friends – Leah (played by Katherine Langford), Nick (played by Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and Abby (played by Alexandra Shipp). As pointed out by his opening voice over, Simon lives a completely perfectly normal life, except for the fact that he is living with a secret. Simon’s secret is that he is gay. When the movie opens, it is two hundred and eight days until high school graduation. When the movie ends it is only seventeen days. Over the course of one hundred and ninety-one days Simon’s life is changes forever!

It all starts with an anonymous student, who goes by the name Blue, posting on Creek Secrets that he is gay. Creek Secrets is a vlog that students at Creekwood High School post on. “Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck on a Ferris wheel. One minute I’m on top of the world. And the next I’m at rock bottom.” By then end of the anonymous post Blue reveals that he is gay. Once he sees this Simon knows he is no longer alone and immediately creates a new Gmail account and sends Blue a reply under the alias of Jacques. Everything is going wonderfully for a few months as the two boys find a safe place in the other’s email inbox where they can finally be themselves. That is until one day when Simon forgets to log out of his inbox on a computer in the school library. Unfortunately for Simon, Martin (played by Logan Miller), an annoying and over-the-top thespian, stumbles upon his emails, reads them all, takes screenshots of all of the emails and decides to use them to blackmail Simon into doing everything that he says. In particular, he wants his help to win the affection of Abby. Simon fears that if Martin makes his emails with Blue public that his love interest will disappear from his life. So, he decides he can’t take the chance of losing the first person he has ever been in love with. When Simon is first confronted by his blackmailer, he cannot even bring himself to utter the word “gay.” Throughout the movie we see Simon grow stronger and embrace who he is and who he loves.

During the movie I cried not once, but twice. The first time was when Simon came out to his parents (Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner) on Christmas morning. The way Nick Robinson played this scene was seamless. I was immediately transported back to when I first told my mom and when I first told my dad. I remember trying to talk, but not being able to find my voice. I remember staring down and avoiding any and all eye contact with them. I remember feeling like it was taking eons for just a matter of minutes to pass. The second time I cried was when weeks later Simon’s dad tells him that he is sorry, that he loves him and that he is proud of him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have missed it. In case the message got lost somewhere, I just want you to know I love you and I’m really proud of you and I wouldn’t change a thing about you!”

As I watched Jack (Duhamel) hug his son with tears in his eyes, I continued to cry. I continued to cry because this is what every child, be the child gay or straight, wants and needs to hear from their parents. Some children go their entire lives without hearing these words. Hearing Jack say those words to his son, I cried out of happiness for Simon and I cried out of the loss I will always feel because those are words that my father will never say to me. Again, this theme is universal. Everyone longs to feel accepted and loved and cherished by the people they love.

Perhaps the most accurate summation of what it feels like to hide a part of yourself from the world, was shared by Emily (Garner), Simon’s mom. “These last few years, it’s almost like I can feel you holding your breath. You are still you, Simon. You are still the Simon I love to tease who your father depends upon for just about everything…You get to exhale now. You get to be more you than you have been in a very long time,” she says.

Throughout the movie, both Simon and the audience are searching for Blue’s true identity. When Simon thinks he knows who Blue is the emails from his beloved are then read in the voice of who Simon thinks is Blue in that moment. As Simon finds something out that disqualifies that character from being Blue, Blue’s voice is replaced by whoever the next possibility is in Simon’s mind. I found this thematic device very creative and effective.

Needless to say, Nick Robinson is the perfect Simon. Throughout the movie he minded me of a young Tom Welling, a la “Smallville’s” early years. His portrayal of Simon was genuine, endearing, vulnerable, uncoordinated (dance scenes only) and heart-breaking.

Also, I couldn’t help but also fall in love with Katherine Langford’s portrayal of Leah. There were so many statements made by her that seemed as though they were plucked from my own thoughts. “Sometimes I feel like I’m always on the outside. There’s this invisible line that I have to cross to really be a part of everything and I just can’t ever cross it… I’m not a casual person. Sometimes I think I’m destined to care so much about one person it nearly kills me,” she explains. Leah is the best friend that everyone dreams of. She loyal and caring. She speaks her mind and is always there when you need her. Despite all these attributes, she is not just a token one-dimensional best friend character. Leah is self-conscious, insecure and dealing with her own secret and grappling with her own insecurities.

There were so many aspects of Love, Simon that I adored that I could go on for pages. This is a movie that reminded me why I fell in love with writing in the first place – because the power of words is endless. It is true what they say “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Words have the power to move hearts and change minds. Words stay with someone long after they have been spoken. Love, Simon is the type of movie where if you listen to it and pay attention to it, it becomes a part of you and remains a part of who you are, long after you have left the theatre.

“I’m done living in a world where I don’t get to be who I am. I deserve a great love story and I want someone to share it with!” – Simon; Love, Simon