DIRECTOR: GREG BERLANTI LEAD CAST: NICK ROBINSONS, JENNIFER GARNER, JOSH DUHAMEL,
KATHERINE LANGFORD, ALEXANDRA SHIPP, LOGAN MILLER,
KEIYNAN
LONSDALE DIRECTOR: GREG BERLANTI
SCREENWRITER:
ELIZABETH BERGER, ISAAC APTAKER, BECKY ALBERTALLI PRODUCER:
TIMOTHY
M. BORNE EDITOR: HARRY JIERJIAN MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: ROB SIMONSEN
GENRE: ROMANTIC COMEDY-DRAMA CINEMATOGRAPHER: JOHN
GULESERIAN DISTRIBUTOR: 20TH CENTURY FOX LOCATION: UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes
Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral
assessment: 2.5
CINEMA rating: V16
Seventeen-year old
Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) looks every inch a wholesome high school boy you’d
feel safe dating your daughter. He has
nice friends, and leads a pretty normal
life with his cool and caring parents (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) and
younger sister Nora (Talitha Bateman). But he has a secret—he is gay, and this is known
only to Blue, an anonymous male online friend he exchanges text messages with. His secret, however, is not to remain one for
long, as a disgruntled classmate discovers it and tries to blackmail him. Simon is left with no choice but to emerge
from the closet—something he is not quite ready for.
With Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and
other CGI-propelled movies currently showing, it’s quite a relief to find
something that’s about real people with real struggles and living real lives—totally
devoid of the zap-pow-clunk! of the
superhero blockbusters. With the
exception of the blackmail device which strikes us as somewhat artificial, Love, Simon comes across as real as
life can be, Love, Simon wants to be a simple, uncomplicated coming-out story
that subtly tries to portray a gay character under a gentle light. With its
well-chosen cast, it’s a likable and almost charming movie populated by nicely
rounded characters—just like any other romantic comedy about high school
romance, except that here it’s a boy-meet-boy thing.
And here is where—for
the sake of the movie’s teen target market—CINEMA steps in to spoil your
fun. The movie shouldn’t be taken as
mere entertainment because its theme—for anyone who sees the bigger picture of
the human situation—is never to be taken for granted. It is absolutely right that gay persons
should be loved and not only accepted for what they are, but it is wrong to
assume that it is enough to be affirmed in one’s sexual orientation in order to
be fulfilled as a human being. Young
audiences need adult guidance to be able to understand Simon’s struggles and
see beyond his self-acceptance. Love
created us for a purpose beyond pleasure or conceit, thus we strive to fulfill
that purpose, whether we are male or female, hetero or homo.
