At my age, I can’t say I know for sure; however, I’m under the impression that it’s easier for a teenager to come out of the closet these days than it was when I was in high school. Being gay now, in most circles, just seems more… acceptable. No matter how loving and supportive friends and family can be, though, we mustn’t forget that coming out is still a very personal, and sometimes difficult, decision for someone to make. And it’s his or her decision to make, if and when he or she is ready.
In the new comedy, Love, Simon, Simon (Nick Robinson), who’s counting down the days until graduation, has a liberal family and close friends, but he also has a secret. He acknowledges that he doesn’t know why he’s keeping it and that he’s not afraid of people finding out that he’s gay. He’s just not ready yet. When his emails with a mystery man who uses the name, “Blue,” are discovered by Martin (Logan Miller), the class clown, though, Martin threatens to expose Simon and blackmails him into playing matchmaker for him and Abby (Alexandra Shipp).
If Simon called his bluff and just went ahead and threw open the closet door, it would save a lot of heartache for everyone involved. However, it also wouldn’t have made a very interesting movie. It’s a unique conflict for a coming out story because while, yes, the conflict revolves around the fact that Simon is gay, that’s really not what the movie is about. It’s about honesty among family and friends and what happens when you break their trust. And that reveals Love, Simon for what it truly is, a sweet love story told in a way we haven’t quite seen before.
Some parts don’t quite ring true and some are overly familiar; however, if you accept the movie for what it is overall, you really can’t nitpick it. Based on the novel, “Simon vs. the Homo Spaiens Agenda,” by Becky Albertalli, and written by Elizabeth Berger & Isaac Aptaker, Love, Simon feels like a modern day Sixteen Candles or The Breakfast Club, without the physical humor. It has plenty of laughs, but they’re character driven. TV wunderkid Greg Berlanti directs it with energy and keeps it moving. I was so entertained that I never as much as fidgeted.
The primary thread around which everything I’ve already mentioned occurs is Simon’s online relationship with Blue. It begins respectful, with them both providing moral support for their similar way of coping with their secrets. But it soon becomes romantic, and Simon yearns to know Blue’s true identity without scaring him away, if Martin decides to publish their emails on the school’s gossip site. We become equally invested in the outcome and their inevitable meeting in an unlikely, yet perfectly contrived, Hollywood movie ending.
What I think about Love, Simon doesn’t really matter. However, I’m dying to know how it’s received by its target audience. Is the high school setting, and are the characters’ situations, authentic for teens? Acceptance of this movie might prove my larger theory about acceptance of coming out. If so, we’ve come a long way. We just have to remember that no matter how much easier it may be for us for people like Simon (and even Elio in Call Me by Your Name) to come out, we’re still a long way from assuming it will be easy for them.
