I’m a hopeless romantic. I’ll be the first to admit it. The thought of two people perfectly matched, or sometimes not so much, meeting up and falling in love? That’s my thing. When a girl bumps into a guy and accidentally spills her hot drink all over him? I LIVE for that. It has my single-girl mind squealing and my hands clutching my fleece blanket a little closer to cover up my swooning smile.
In short, I will willingly watch a rom-com over literally anything else—action, drama, or horror. (Except for comedy. Put on Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Bridesmaids, and I’m your girl).
To see a rom-com with a relatable and central storyline about a teenage boy who is closeted and unsure of himself, that’s a rare thing in Hollywood, especially in light of recent world events. But Love, Simon is, without a doubt, the single best rom-com I’ve ever seen.
Simon Spier is a 17-year-old boy just 200+ days shy of graduating high school, and his life is perfect, or so it seems to be. He has a loving family, the best friends and drinks way too much iced coffee. But he has one big secret—he’s gay. It isn’t until someone else, someone with the nickname “Blue,” reveals that they’re gay online does Simon feel as though it is possible for him to come out, and begins to chat with Blue, before falling in love with him.
I don’t even know where to begin to talk about my love for this particular movie, but I guess I’ll start with how relatable it is, not just for its LGBTQ+ storyline, but for the actual portrayal of teenagers in 2018. These characters face real things and real events—they talk about divorced and single parents, the election of Donald Trump and the troubles of being high-school pariahs. The jokes they make are in the same vein as the ones we would make today, so it doesn’t feel like we’re outsiders watching a movie. We become fully immersed in the story, as though we are part of it. Sometimes, when watching a rom-com I’m unable to connect and it feels as though I’m watching through a window. But Love, Simon, weaves teenage humor and sensitivity so intricately through its script that you can’t help but become part of Simon, Abbie, Leah, and Nick’s lives.
The second thing is the acting. Oh my gosh. Jennifer Garner, fellow Denisonian, does a wonderful job as Simon’s mother. She’s sweet and loving, and wants a connection with her son, but it isn’t until she sits Simon down to talk that you really understand as a viewer how good she really is. “You get to exhale, Simon,” is one of the best lines I’ve ever heard when describing the relief of coming out. Garner’s delivery is soft, comforting, and it brought me to tears. If all parents were as accepting of their children’s coming out as Garner’s character was, I imagine the world would be a much happier place.
Josh Duhamel is, in my mind, an action guy. I mostly know him from the few Transformers movies I watched (but let’s be real: after the first two, I got lost, and so did everybody else). He was also in Safe Haven with Julianne Hough, a straight rom-com based off of a Nicholas Sparks novel. But here, he’s Simon’s wisecracking but sensitive dad, and his own scene with Nick Robinson (Simon) after Simon’s coming out is beautiful. The raw emotion there? Impeccable.
But all the awards in the world go to Nick Robinson, who plays Simon. I’ve been watching Robinson for a while, mostly because I thought he was cute (and still do) when I watched Freeform/ABC Family’s Melissa and Joey, and he was a central character in 2015’s Jurassic World. Robinson is front and center here, and doesn’t disappoint. What he does best is show emotion in his eyes, and in a pivotal scene between Simon and his best friend Leah (portrayed by the lovely Katherine Langford, of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why fame), one simply can’t take their eyes off him. It’s such a powerful yet poignant scene, with Simon desperately wanting to tell Leah his secret, and Leah wanting to reveal one of her own. Any way you look at it, Robinson’s cemented himself as a rom-com hero, and he’s phenomenal.
To everyone who has yet to come out, or has come out but feels unaccepted, or is even loved so much by their family much like Simon, this is the movie for you. It’s beautifully written, played by a stellar cast, has you dancing to a killer soundtrack and hugs at your heartstrings. But most of all, it reminds you that everyone does deserve a great love story. You just have to be willing to open yourself to it.