Love, Simon (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Greg Berlanti

Starring:  Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Logan Miller, Tony Hale, Keiynan Lonsdale

Love, Simon tells the sweet, touching, and safe story of a high school senior with a carefully hidden secret:   He is gay.    Yes, even though the calendar reads 2018, such confessions are still met with fear by some of the confessors and fear and derision by some of those hearing them.     Plenty of positive steps have been taken in terms of gay rights and gay marriage, but with cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court about whether a baker has the right to refuse to bake a cake for a gay wedding, we see we still have far to go. 

Love, Simon doesn't concern itself with the larger picture, but focuses on Simon Spier (Robinson), an engaging, nice guy who pretends to be straight, or at least not to be gay.    He has friends and a loving family, none of whom suspect his homosexuality.    Or if they do, they aren't saying.    Simon believes coming out of the closet would upset his happy life and chooses to remain closeted, but word of another student at his school coming out anonymously surfaces.    Simon befriends the other student via email, cleverly concealing his own identity.    But, soon Simon falls in love with the person on the other end of the email and such love inspires him to push towards coming out.

Staying in the closet proves more precarious than coming out.    One of Simon's friends, a showboat actor named Martin (Miller), inadvertently discovers Simon's secret and blackmails him into meeting Simon's friend Abby (Shipp), who just moved to the area a few months prior.    Martin wants Simon to make the road easy for he and Abby to become an item, including forcing Simon to lie to his other friends about Abby's availability.    It becomes a treacherous web for Simon from which he can't untangle himself.

We care for Simon and we find ourselves swept into the story, even though it is at heart a light comedy which doesn't delve too deeply into the repercussions of Simon's plight.    Love, Simon is content not to make larger assumptions about society's views towards homosexuality.    It is home as a romantic teen comedy.    The actors are fresh and engaging, and Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel have some nice moments as Simon's parents, whom are kind, loving, and accepting.   

The movie plays like a mystery and we try to discover the identity of Simon's new love, and it is surprisingly not hokey.    Love, Simon proves coming out of the closet doesn't have to be a drag, but can be an uplifting experience.     As one character tells Simon, "Let yourself breathe."  

Note:   The school musical in Love, Simon is Cabaret.   Would a saucy story with a Nazism backdrop in which some characters dance in lingerie really be approved as the school musical in these times?    Food for thought.