A High-School Student Struggles to Come Out

Nick Robinson in "Love, Simon"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

The high-school sub-genre of film is something that’s seen quite a few notable entries over the last several months.  We had a fun superhero film with “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” an emotional coming-of-age story with “Lady Bird,” a wickedly funny horror-comedy with “Tragedy Girls,” and a darkly comedic thriller with “Thoroughbreds,” all of which have their characters experience high school in their own unique ways.

This sub-genre has been given another great addition with director Greg Berlanti’s comedy-drama, “Love, Simon,” a film that succeeds with its endearing cast and inspiring story.

Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) is a closeted high-school student with a loving family and a group of best friends.  He wishes to share to everyone that he’s gay, but he doesn’t know how.  When Nick falls in love with an anonymous, closeted student from his school that he meets online, he tries to figure out who this person is.  As their correspondence progresses, they will give each other the strength to come out to their peers.

Nick Robinson delivers a performance that’s rich in its sincerity.  He’s able to display his character’s internal struggle of hiding his true self from his family and friends, while also expressing relief and happiness by having an anonymous friend in whom to confide his feelings.  Robinson presents an affecting back-and-forth with the two sides of Simon’s character because we see that he’s glad to have loved ones with whom to share the good times, but he doesn’t feel like he could be his complete self during these moments due to his secret, and Robinson does superb work in conveying this dilemma with quiet, emotional power.

The cast has a handful of memorable supporting performances, such as Katherine Langford and Alexandra Shipp as two of Simons’s friends, and Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel as Simon’s parents.  While I wish that his parents were given a little more screen time, they each have an emotional scene with Simon that are two of the film’s best because of how you’re able to feel the unconditional love between him and his parents, a support that Simon needs and deserves.

The screenplay by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, which is based on Becky Albertalli’s 2015 young-adult novel, “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” gives us a funny and dramatic look into Simon’s life at home and high-school, without devolving into high-school-movie clichés.  We see Simon have nights-in with his family, spend time with friends, take part in extracurriculars, and go to social gatherings.  In these scenes, we have some naturalistic interactions amongst the characters as they go through relatable high-school happenings.  And, in between these sequences, as well as during them, we have Simon’s determination as he tries to figure out the identity of whom he’s been e-mailing and when the right time will be to reveal his secret.

Aptaker and Berger provide a story about how important it is to let go of any secrets that are holding you back from being who you are.  However, they don’t just apply this lesson to Simon’s character, but to his friends and some other classmates as well, which allows us to become invested in those characters as they look for the courage to have their true selves known.  Despite the screenwriters sharing the central message’s focus throughout several characters, it never feels as though attention’s diverted from Simon’s character arc, seeing as the narrative has the arcs of these supporting characters interweave with Simon’s. 

Greg Berlanti creates a genuine coming-out story that sidesteps sentimentality.  He knows that the screenplay is already heartwarming, and the story never tries to elicit easy tears from the audience, so Berlanti lets the acting and dialogue do the work.  Because of this, he’s able to keep the authenticity of this modern high-school portrait alive.

“Love, Simon” has a heart that fills up the screen, and it’s a movie with a lot of love to give.

Final grade: A-