By Isabella Purdy & Jennifer Trend, Staff Writers
“Love, Simon” recently came out to theaters, delighting fans of both the book and movie. Bringing the book to life, it showed a story of filled with love and obstacles that Simon Spier had overcome.
“Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” is an incredible book by Becky Albertalli which takes a stereotypical teenage love story and just completely blows it out of the water with its own unique twists.
The main character of the story is Simon, a teenaged boy who is secretly gay but hasn’t come out to his parents or fellow peers. Who does know about Simon being gay is his penpal Blue, whom he emails daily. When Simon’s secret is in danger along with Blue, Simon will embark on a thrilling journey that will shock you.
The characters will make you fall in love with them, along with the book being an excellent love story with a great plot, character development and a story that will instantly capture you.
As both a movie and book to movie adaptation, I think it did amazing, staying true to the original story line and world that Albertalli created, while creating its own twist in the imagination of the director, Greg Berlanti.
It was funny, serious, and sad when it needed to be, and more often than not, it made me cry, and as someone who it’s hard to make cry, that’s a compliment. I was transported into Simon’s world and I felt what he and the others had felt, which is not something you see very often today. Yes, you may understand a concept or feeling introduced in the movie, but in this movie the characters came to life, and their story screamed for you to really connect and understand what they were going through.
Usually in a book to movie adaptation, you’re lucky if you get a handful of the major scenes that came from the book. But it was obvious from the start that this movie was different, and throughout there were multiple scenes that came from the book. From small things from who and why Simon thought someone was Blue and to big things such as the scene where Simon gets mad at Martin after outing him, it was amazing to see what the movie did to make the book come to life. All these small details made the movie so much more powerful and heart wrenching, having already experienced it in words, now you get to see it.
The music was something that was the kind that is both in the character’s life, later fading into the background. Throughout, there were appearances from Panic! at the Disco, Troye Sivan, The 1975 and other classy bands and musicians. Not only this, but there were other pop culture references from “Harry Potter,” “Adventure Time,” “Hamilton” and so much more, decorating Simon’s room, and influencing his life.
But yes, some parts were a tad bit glossed up for Hollywood. After Simon had been exposed by classmate Martin, some scenes felt a bit forced and not very realistic. While yes, it didn’t fake anything by making everyone instantly like him, or make being gay this thing that should be glorified or talked down thing, it left with the half idea that those who come out are instantly isolated and made fun of.
Yes, there was an obvious reason why he was isolated, given he did try to mess with his friend group to not be forced out, but I felt that there could’ve been another story line or approach where Simon’s friends and family didn’t isolate him, and instead approached him, even though it didn’t exactly happen like that in the book.
Both from a cinematic and book to movie adaptation view, the movie did wonderfully, accurately bringing to life Simon’s world and experiences. This was one of the most accurate book to movie adaptations I have seen, and it was absolutely a delight to watch, even if I did cry during half the movie.
