Simon (Nick Robinson) is just like any other teenager. He likes to hang out at the local coffee shop or Waffle House with his best friends—Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), whom he has known since kindergarten, and Abby (Alexandra Shipp), who just moved to the neighborhood 3 months earlier. However, Simon has a secret that he’s been hiding for the past 3 years…he’s gay. While he’s sure that his friends and liberal parents—Emily (Jennifer Garner) and Jack (Josh Duhamel)—would understand and accept him, he worries that if he comes out of the closet, things will change. There is only one openly gay student at his high school, and he is regularly harassed by some of the other students.

One day, an anonymous letter is posted to the high school’s internal message board, CreekSecrets. In the post, a student going by the name Blue announces that he is gay, but still in the closet. Simon decides to contact this mystery guy, explaining that he is in a similar situation. Simon signs his email with using the alias Jacques. After clicking send, it’s like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Simon constantly and anxiously checks his phone for a response, and it is like love at first email when Blue does respond. Through their conversations, Simon and Blue find courage, support and strength in one another. Simon starts to fall in love with his mystery pen pal, eagerly awaiting each new response from Blue. He tries to piece together clues from the emails to figure out which of his fellow students might be Blue. As Simon hones in on a suspect, his daydreams become populated with that young man’s face, but once he witnesses something that suggests that the current target of his affections may be straight, Simon once again goes back to the drawing board.

One day Simon accidentally forgets to log out of the computer in the school library, and fellow drama club student Martin (Logan Miller) sees the correspondence. He takes snapshots of the emails and confronts Simon, telling him that he won’t say anything as long as Simon helps him get with his friend Abby. While Simon fears being outed, what he is even more afraid of is that if the letters are made public, it will spook Blue, and his first loving relationship will come to a crashing halt. So Simon reluctantly agrees to help Martin. Simon is aware that best friend Nick likes Abby, and that she also likes Nick in return, though neither has said anything to the other. But now Simon must purposely sabotage that relationship in order to get Abby to go out with Martin, and keep his secret from getting out. What lengths with Simon go to keep Martin from revealing his secret and protect his blossoming relationship? How will Simon’s friends react when/if they discover his betrayal? And will he figure out who Blue is and make a real-life love connection?

Love, Simon is both fun and heartwarming. It will have you laughing one minute, and your eyes welling up the next. It is great to see a mainstream romantic comedy centered around a gay lead character. This is not something that we typically (if ever) see at the movies. The film doesn’t feel preachy or like it is pushing an agenda—it just feels like a natural, normal coming of age love story with characters and themes that anyone, gay or straight, can relate to.

Nick Robinson delivers an amazing performance—he is not only charming and delightful, but also conveys both the joy of someone falling in love for the first time, and the fear and inner turmoil that Simon is experiencing over keeping his secret and betraying his friends. Now having seen the film, I cannot imagine any other actor playing this role. Robinson also has such great chemistry with all of the cast. As the film opens, you want to be a part of Simon’s squad. Here is this great group of friends who do everything together, and support one another. Even though Abby has only been a part of the group for a few months, she feels like an equal member. Simon’s home life is also great. He has two supportive, sometimes goofball, parents who love and trust him, and give him his freedom. Simon loves his younger sister, an aspiring chef who always has some interesting breakfast experiment waiting for him before he heads off to school. And Simon’s school is run by the supportive Vice Principal Mr. Worth (Tony Hale), a really fun character who over-shares a bit too much as he tries to prove to the teenagers that he is hip and cool.

Much of the film is narrated from Simon’s point of view, though the emails that he writes to Blue. This gives the viewer a good sense of the emotions and feelings he is going through as he experiences falling love for the first time. We also see and feel some of the struggle Simon goes though. Simon’s father is constantly joking with him about girlfriends and the opposite sex, and while Simon knows his father is not being malicious, it still makes him feel uncomfortable given the secret that he is hiding. Simon’s mother also senses that something is wrong, telling him that he has felt guarded for the past few years.

While most of the relationship between Simon and Blue takes place via email, the filmmakers have found a creative way to fully realize the couple in the real world. Scenes with Blue have their own blue-toned color palette. We don’t see Blue’s face as he types his letters to Simon, just a shot of the back of a young man as he types away at his computer. However, each time Simon believes he has identified Blue, that student becomes the person typing at the computer, narrating the letters, and interacting with Simon as he daydreams of going on romantic adventures together. As Simon eliminates each candidate, Blue temporarily goes back to being the faceless young man, until Simon selects the next student he believes could be his love.

FOX’s Blu-ray release provides an excellent presentation. The picture is clean and detailed, with a wonderful use of the color palette. Even during the Halloween party where there are neon green and sparkling fairy lights, the colors remain defined and don’t bleed into one another. The audio track provides clear dialogue, and the musical soundtrack sounds great. The bonus material includes a pair of deleted scenes, nearly 30 minutes of cast/filmmaker featurettes, and an audio commentary. The Blu-ray and DVD discs come packed in a standard HD keepcase along with a cardboard slipcover. Inside is the digital copy redemption instructions (the digital copy redeems in HD format).

What’s Included:

Film: (1:49:42)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Thai Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Thai, Vietnamese, English Commentary

DVD:

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, English Commentary

Digital (code may not be valid after 2020):

• Digital Copy
  HD Digital copy of redeemable via Movies Anywhere.

Extras:
All bonus features are included on both discs.

• Deleted Scenes (7:51)
  Play All, or select from two deleted scenes:
  • Lying to Abby (1:58)
    Abby asks Simon is she should go out with Nick. Simon discourages her by telling her that Nick is bad with women, and that he cheated on his last girlfriend.
  • Gay Bar (5:53)
    After Simon is outed, Nick takes him to a gay bar where a guy hits on him. Afterwards Simon has has a fight with his mother about coming home drunk. While a fun and interesting scene, it’s easy to see why this was cut as it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the movie, and is out of character for both Nick and Emily.
• The Adaptation (10:41)
  The cast and creators talk about Becky Albertalli’s novel, “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda”, and adapting the story for film. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director Greg Berlanti, producer Pouya Shahbazian, author Becky Albertalli, co-writer Isaac Aptaker, and stars Jennifer Garner (“Emily”), Keiynan Lonsdale (“Bram”), Katherine Langford (“Leah”), Josh Duhamel (“Jack”), Nick Robinson (“Simon”), Logan Miller (“Martin”), Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (“Nick”), Alexandra Shipp (“Abby”), and Miles Heizer (“Cal”).
• The Squad (9:46)
  The cast and creators talk about casting the characters of Simon and his friends. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with producer Pouya Shahbazian, director Greg Berlanti, author Becky Albertalli, and stars Nick Robinson, Alexandra Shipp, Katherine Langford, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., and Logan Miller.
• #FirstLoveStoryContest (1:34)
  Director Greg Berlanti explains a contest where filmmakers submitted short films depicting their first love story, and then shows the winning short film.
• Dear Georgia (5:07)
  The cast and filmmakers talk about the filming locations in Atlanta. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director Greg Berlanti, producer Timothy M. Bourne, author Becky Albertalli, and stars Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, and Keiynan Lonsdale.
• Audio Commentary (1:49:42)
  Director Greg Berlanti, producer Isaac Klausner and co-screenwriter Issac Aptaker provide an entertaining and informative commentary throughout the film. They discuss the cast, the music, the romantic whodunit aspect of the film, translating the computer screen interactions of the book, and more. They also mention some of the differences from the book, such as using Cabaret instead of Oliver! for the school musical, and the changes to Martin’s Halloween costume. The men do a great job of discussing each character and the actor playing them, and director Greg Berlanti shares a lot of his own personal experiences that resonate with the events and themes of the film.
• Gallery (2:05)
  Manually step through this gallery of 24 production photos or allow the slideshow to auto advance every five seconds.
• Theatrical Trailers (4:11)
  Play All or select between Theatrical Trailer (1:44) or Theatrical Trailer 2 (2:26).
• Sneak Peeks (5:28)
  Play All or select from “Children of Blood and Bone”, “The Greatest Showman”, and “Maze Runner: The Death Cure”.

Final Thoughts:

Love, Simon is a delightful coming-of-age romantic comedy about a young man finding love for the first time. It just so happens that this young man is gay. I hope that this film opens the door for more similarly-themed films, allowing more young folks to see themselves reflected in mainstream films like this. The entire cast is a lot of fun, but Nick Robinson gives a standout performance, conveying the roller-coaster of emotions that Simon goes through over the course of the film. The Blu-ray delivers excellent picture and sound, and includes a solid selection of bonus material. This release comes highly recommended based on the film alone, but the extras and digital copy are a nice added bonus.