‘Love, Simon’ Fills Theaters- and Hearts

By Grace Gorham, Contributing Writer

Love, Simon came out on Friday, March 16, and the heart-warming film has been gaining positive reviews.

The film received a 91% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93% audience score.

Many teens who saw the movie also read the novel it is based off of, Simon vs. the Homo Sapien’s Agenda by Becky Albertalli.

The only downside of the movie was that the plot slightly differed from the book, leaving out some aspects that were important in the book, but even with the adjusted plot in the movie, the overall message and meaning remained the same.

In both the movie and the book, the main character is Simon Spier (played by Nick Robinson,) who appears to be a typical junior in high school.

He has a close group of friends: Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.,) Leah (Katherine Langford,) and Abby (Alexandra Shipp,) who do everything together. His parents (played by Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner) are described as the “star quarterback and hot valedictorian who didn’t peak in high school,” and he has a little sister Nora (Talitha Bateman) who cares about him as well.

He seems to have the perfect life, living in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, except for one big secret: he’s gay. Simon has not come out yet for fear of his life changing. Since he is already a junior in high school, he figures that he can just get through his last two years of high school and then come out in college.

Then, one day, Leah tells him about an online confession of another closeted gay kid at school. This spurs Simon to write an email to the person who posted the confession, and, using hidden identities, (Simon being “Jacques” and the anonymous confession being “Blue”) the two converse about how they can relate to each other’s struggles.

As they get to know each other, Simon wants to meet the mysterious “Blue” more and more, and eventually by the end they are able to meet- however, not without obstacles.

Along the way, Simon’s emails are discovered by another student, Martin, who blackmails Simon into helping him get a date with Simon’s friend, Abby.

The movie takes many twists and turns, keeps the audience guessing who Blue is, and has many touching and heartfelt moments throughout.

Many theaters were sold out on opening weekend to see the film, and some celebrities such as Kristen Bell and Neil Patrick Harris even bought out whole theaters for people in their hometowns to see the movie for free.

Overall, Love, Simon is an uplifting and inspirational story, sure to touch the hearts of anyone and everyone who watches it.