Last year, I received an email from Fox, asking if we wanted to visit the Love, Simon set. I was so excited – two days in Atlanta. One day on the set of The Darkest Minds, one day on the set of Love, Simon. My YA fangirl heart was content.
And then two days before leaving, our set visit to Love, Simon got cancelled and my heart broke. I love that book so much that I thought that I was disappointed. But here’s the thing – and sure it took me a year to realize it, anger isn’t a fair thing to feel. Everything happens for a reason, as cliche as that sounds and after sitting through a screening of Love, Simon the other day – I am thankful that I wasn’t on that set.
Why?
Because I have never fallen so hard for a movie watching it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love going to movie sets. I am thankful for every opportunity that we have. I love being able to bring you guys things. But this movie is just so fantastic – that I loved every surprise, everything I never expected.
Let me explain.
Love, Simon is a movie that I didn’t know I needed. I didn’t know that my heart needed to grow two sizes. I didn’t know that I needed to be able to cheer in a movie theatre. I didn’t know that I wanted to be able examine the way that I look at life. I didn’t know that I wanted to realize that everyone has secrets and it’s not up to us to judge them for those – or for anything.
I didn’t know just how much I wanted everyone to be free.
I didn’t know just how much I wanted to celebrate everyone’s love story and how much I really wanted one myself.
If you aren’t familiar with Love, Simon, it tells the story of Simon, who is keeping a huge secret. He’s gay. After exchanging emails with another kid at his school who is living with the same secret, he’s blackmailed when someone gets ahold of their exchange. Coming to terms with who he is and the way that his life changes isn’t easy, but it’s the road that he travels that leads us to his amazing love story.
The film adaptation is based on the book Simon vs. The HomoSapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. The book and the movie aren’t the same, but this adaptation is as close to perfection as you can get.
The movie was directed by Greg Berlanti, who we all know is uber talented. But we can’t rave enough at what a perfect job he did at this movie. Lord, he translated this book so flawlessly, so beautifully.
Now no one will be shocked that this is a Temple Hill production. They have their hands in what seems like everything. But who is shocked after their success with The Fault in Our Stars. What author wouldn’t clamor to get their work adapted by them?
There aren’t many who wouldn’t.
But here’s the thing about Temple Hill that I will give credit for. They understand what people want and they knew with this one, that they couldn’t fuck it up. See, the thing is that it doesn’t matter that not everything is there from the book, what matters is that they made sure to capture the books essence and heart and translate it to screen. The chose a stellar cast of actors, made sure that the words were beautiful, and that no matter what they were careful with the subject.
It’s never mattered to me who anyone loves, whats mattered to me is the person that they are. And the movie addresses just that. But it takes a beautiful look at why it’s important for everyone to have their own coming out story, how you can’t take that away from them. People deserve to be able to explain their truths as they see fit. I’m honestly terrified to write this review, because I know that I am never going to make everyone happy and I will never be able to find the right words for this.
How do you adequately communicate the love that you have for something and also be conscious of what you don’t understand? I have never had to come out, I have never had to define who I am with my sexuality. Being straight is accepted. We don’t have to define ourselves to others.
We just get to be who we are. But how is that okay? I get it – the world doesn’t work the way that I think. But I think part of the beauty of Love, Simon is that they examine that. We all have our opinions and our views, but at the end of the day – what we are is human.
Love, Simon is perfection. Simply put it’s perfection. It examines it all.
The truth is – all the actors are phenomenal. Every scene had them delivering amazing performances. But to be honest with you, I got lost in the story and forgot to analyze the actors performances. I just knew walking out of that theater that they were supposed to be there.
Those actors brought everything together and made it perfect.
Love, Simon is a touching, heartfelt, beautiful movie that will make you think twice about the way you live your life, your judgments, your heart. But all in the best way possible. This movie is what the world needs right now and I suggest running, not walking to theaters.
