Post By: Sarah Barclay

Love, Simon came out in theaters March 16th, and are we so glad it did. This review will be a little bit different than our other reviews. Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti, is an adaptation of the book Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, which I read before seeing the movie. With that being said, I’m going to split up this review into two parts: one analyzing the movie as an adaptation of the book, and the other analyzing the movie as a whole, completely separated from the book. This way, no matter what boat you’re in, you can get an honest review of this movie. In addition, I will also be introducing a star rating system out of 5 stars for each section.

First and foremost, Love, Simon is the story of Simon Spier, a not so openly gay senior in high school. With this secret, Simon takes to writing back and forth to a mysterious Blue, who is also gay, through a series of emails. It isn’t until someone finds these emails and threatens to out Simon (and Blue) to the whole school that Simon must face himself and everyone around him with his secret.

My Thoughts On Love, Simon As An Adaptation

(Contains major book/movie spoilers, so skip if you haven’t read the book or don’t want to be spoiled, you have been warned)

Like I discussed in this past week’s video, no adaptation is perfect, Love, Simon included. In order to evaluate how well the movie did as an adaptation, I’m going to talk about the changes that were made and how much of the original source material was kept.

My score for the adaptation side does not affect the overall movie score, it is simply a reference for those of you that wanted to see how well it was translated from the original book. The inclusion or deletion of book details doesn’t change how well the movie was put together. There will be some aspects that I will touch on in both the adaptation and overall review. To avoid being overly repetitive, I will go more in depth in the overall review. Those sections will be marked *.

Without any further ado, let’s get into my feelings on Love, Simon as an adaptation.

What they changed:

Simon and his glasses - Movie Simon doesn’t wear glasses, unlike book Simon who wears them at all times with the exception of the play. There’s a subtle nod to it while he’s writing Blue about his middle school girlfriend. In that scene, the email is visualized and middle school Simon is shown wearing his glasses. Other than that, he doesn’t wear them and it’s assumed that he’s wearing contacts. *
Simon’s Sisters - As we are all aware, book Simon has two sisters, Alice and Nora. Alice isn’t as present as Nora is since she’s off at college, but I felt she still had an important role in Simon’s life. I understand why she was taken out. Her inclusion would’ve most likely made the movie a little longer, especially if they went with the ‘secret boyfriend’ subplot. Nora is a different story. In the book, she’s around 14-15, a freshman in high school. I’m not sure if movie Nora is supposed to be that same age, but she seems a little young, maybe by 2-3 years. It’s a little picky on my part to critique that since it isn’t stated.

Simon’s email and alias - If done the way of the book, we would’ve needed extra background information. We would need to know that Simon takes French and that’s where the name Jacques came from. While his original email was an obscure song lyric (Elliott Smith’s Waltz #2), it’s possible they couldn’t get the rights, so they just went with a different song and lyric. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it when I first saw it, but after seeing the movie in its entirety, that context makes it better, and I appreciate that. This change is minor and really not that important in the grand scheme of things. I liked how they handled it, and I thought it fit well.
Bram’s Character - I have a few issues with movie Bram when comparing him to book Bram. According to book Simon, Bram doesn’t talk a lot, he’s "awkward silence Bram". Movie Bram, not so much. There’s also a bit of a personality change with an ‘event’, but I can’t go into it without spoiling part of the movie as it’s not in the book.
Simon’s parents’ reaction to underage drinking - We all know that when Simon shows up at home after drinking, he gets caught, and his parents ground him, right? That didn’t happen. As shown in the trailer itself, his parents didn’t really care. They let it go and said the cliche line “We’re good parents." It’s such a small thing to be concerned about, but if I’m being honest, I wasn’t a big fan of it. I felt it took away from their characters.
The Musical - The musical was changed, plain and simple, but I’m not mad at it. To tell you the truth, I really liked the change. I’m not sure if the change was intentional or if they couldn’t get the rights to Oliver, but I liked that they went with Cabaret (as much as I would’ve liked to see Martin butcher Fagin - figuratively, not literally). It’s not as well known of a show as Oliver, and I think if they went with Oliver, the songs are too recognizable, and there would be a possibility that it would take away from the movie.
The Talent Show - Simply put, the talent show was cut. There’s no Nora and Leah playing in a band, there’s no meeting Alice’s ‘secret boyfriend’. It didn’t happen. I’m not mad at it as it didn’t add to the main plot and would’ve made the movie too long trying to include that subplot. Scenes get cut in adaptations, it happens. This scene just happened to be the one that got the big chop.

The Carnival - I’m going to be honest with you. The carnival scene is so awkward in the movie. The ride is changed from the Tilt-A-Whirl to a ferris wheel, and if that was the only change, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with it, but my issue comes with not Simon, nor Blue, but everyone else. *

The main issue I have with the movie as an adaptation was a change with Leah, but because it wasn't in any part of the book, I can't say what it is. All I can really say is that it's very cliché. If you've read the book and go see the movie, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Overall, Love, Simon is a decent adaptation, but it’s far from perfect. For the most part, it kept true to the original story, but there were changes I simply couldn’t get past. As much as I love the book, the movie isn’t the same.

★★☆☆☆

My Thoughts On Love, Simon As A Movie

(Spoiler-free review)

This portion of the review won’t go as in depth as the adaptation review as to avoid

spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book. I’m going to analyze what I liked, what I didn’t like,

and the story as a whole, unrelated to the book.

Starting off with what was good about the movie: I liked how they set up the beginning of the movie and the start of the blackmail. There was an establishment of characters and Simon before the emails started. They eased into it rather than dropping us right in the middle of it like the book did. Since they’re different platforms/media, they each need a different approach to setting up a story. The movie couldn’t give us the blackmail first and attempt to give context the same way the book does, and I appreciate that the movie didn’t try to do that.

On the topic of the emails, I really liked the change of voice/character when it came to Simon trying to guess Blue’s identity. They present a visualization of what’s going on in

Simon’s mind as he’s writing and reading these emails. When he thinks he has a lead on who it is, the narrator changes, and when he’s uncertain, Blue is represented by a faceless guy behind a computer. I also really liked the visualized scenes of some of the emails that are being sent. We weren’t just looking at Simon typing away. We could see memories and visual representation of his thoughts. It kept the story interesting and funny, and I’m happy it was included. Initially, I wasn’t entirely sure about them when they were shown in the trailer, but seeing them in the context of the movie, they worked really well, and I enjoyed it.

I liked where they went and what they did with the emails. Every detail from the book can’t make it into the movie, and the emails are no exception. They kept it simple and left no open plot points. The information mentioned was necessary and used as it should be. They kept the fascination with Oreos and that Blue is Jewish (I was scared they were going to take it out, don’t ask me why). There was continuity with the emails, which could’ve easily gotten confusing, but it wasn’t.

I really like casting, I was concerned that some characters would get lost in translation, but I felt the actors nailed the characters, except for the amount Bram says, book Bram really doesn’t say a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I love book Bram and movie Bram, but they aren’t the same Bram. Martin was spot on. He was annoying and awful, just like in the book. I wanted to punch them both equally, that’s how close they were. Martin isn’t supposed to be a likable character and both his actions and lines really show that.

Bouncing off of the casting and acting, the writing was really good. I thought the jokes were funny, and the more serious parts were realistic. Things happened for a reason, and the reactions seemed more real and genuine. Nothing was added that I felt was unnecessary, and the overall story was cohesive.

I didn’t notice any editing glitches, I really liked the way it was edited and how the story somewhat comes around full circle.

The bedroom decorations and props in Simon’s room were really fun to see: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera, The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (author of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda), a Hamilton playbill, and an Elliott Smith poster were just a few of the things I noticed. These really make Simon seem just like us while still staying true to book Simon.

*It is acknowledged that Simon used to wear glasses, and it’s assumed that he now wears contacts. This is all fine and dandy except for when a character stays over, Simon does NOT remove his contacts before going to sleep. There is no sequence showing that he needs glasses, and he’s way too young to have had Lasik. Whether it was done purposely or accidentally, as someone who wears contacts and glasses, to me it was just unrealistic. They didn’t have to show that Simon wore glasses at all, and it would’ve been fine, but they did. It shows they were paying attention when they were writing it, but not enough to keep continuity. It may not be a big deal for anyone else, but it just bothered me, and it will continue to bother me.

*My other issue is at the very end (I’m going to try to avoid as many spoilers as I possibly can, but I honestly cannot write this review without mentioning this). Simon learns who Blue is, duh. We’re not going to have this story with secret emails and not learn who the writer is, but when Simon learns who he’s been writing to, he’s not alone. Literally the entire school is watching, taking away from the supposed intimacy of the scene, and they weren’t just silently watching either. They were cheering loudly, I thought it was extremely distracting and took away from the scene. I’m sure it was written with good intentions, but it just didn’t work for me.

As a movie (unrelated to the book), it is very good. Solid characters, writing, and performance. The attention to detail is fantastic. Nothing happens without reason - it makes sense. It’s a sweet LGBTQ+ love story which is important to our generation. It’s beautiful in so many aspects. I absolutely love this movie and its message, and I love that this story is available to a mass audience.

★★★★☆