Love, Simon

LOVE, SIMON

Director : Greg Berlanti

Year : 2018

Genre : Romantic comedy

Eating : ****

While it may come from the same producers who bought us the frankly dire 2015 teen weepie 'The Fault In Our Stars', 'Love, Simon' is a truly charming cinematic experience that deals with it's complex and universal themes of adolescent angst and identity crisis without having to resort to the same emotionally manipulate platitudes of it's lesser predecessor. 

Wonderfully adapted from Becky Albertalli's best-selling novel 'Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda' and efficiently directed by 'Life As We Know It' helmsman Greg Berlanti, 'Love, Simon' is, rather shockingly, the first major studio production to have a gay teen romance at it's centre. But while this movie may indeed mark a significant turning point for Hollywood in regards to its representation of young homosexuals, 'Love, Simon' still manages to be a great film nonetheless, with likeable and well developed characters and a story that is funny, moving and incredibly relatable regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation.

Having underwhelmed me in the past with his bland performances in 'Jurassic World' and the wildly misjudged romantic drama 'Everything, Everything', Nick Robinson now fully wins me over with his robust and very well-judged portrayal of the eponymous Simon, a popular teenage boy who is battling his closeted homosexual proclivities. Unable to tell his parents (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) or his circle of best friends, Simon leads a happy yet unfulfilling life, hiding his true self away for fear of rejection and humiliation. However, when a fellow student anonymously outs himself on his schools social media blog, Simon begins to accept who he really is, psuedonymously engaging in heartfelt conversation with his faceless friend while also preparing to tell his biggest secret to those he loves and cares about the most.

Following in the wake of such critically lauded LGBTQ films as 'Moonlight', 'Blue Is The Warmest Colour' and 'Call Me By Your Name', 'Love, Simon' plants it's rainbow flag with pride from the off, portraying it's central protagonist with a dimension and depth usually lacking from most heterosexual romantic dramas. Rather than being the screaming, mincing stereotype multiplex audiences will sadly be used to seeing for the past 3 or so decades of cinema, the film takes it's time for us to get to know about Simon and his life and this in turn allows us to fall that bit more in love with him. Certainly it may owe a certain thematic debt to the rom-com classics of John Hughes but 'Love, Simon' manages to outshine it's influences thanks to it's brilliantly witty screenplay and a number of fine performances, most notably that of leading man Nick Robinson who injects his portrayal of the tortured teenager with a great deal of hard-earned emotion and self-effacing humour.

There is so much to enjoy about 'Love, Simon' that a mere review will barely begin to scratch the surface. That being said, it isn't a perfect film. Some of the lesser characters do quickly grate on the nerves such as Tony Hale's annoyingly quirky vice-principle and Logan Miller's utterly irredeemable Martin whose black-mail driven subplot repeatedly threatens to derail the movie entirely. Also, at 110 minutes, 'Love, Simon' is one or two scenes too long.

However, these are minor blotches on an otherwise terrific piece of work.  Yes, the aforementioned flaws do drag the movie down at times but it is impossible to deny the resplendent joy and infectious likeability that oozes from every second - its beautifully intimate and cheer-inducing ending is sure to melt the stoniest and coldest of hearts. Endearing, enjoyable and very entertaining indeed, 'Love, Simon' is a coming of age film the likes of which we have never seen before and I sincerely hope that directors, producers and scriptwriters make more like this in the future - movies which represent and portray with dignity a demographic who have been so poorly mistreated by the industry in the past.