"Love, Simon" - our heart and body are only lived once
After "Call Me by Your Name" was nominated for Best Film Oscar, American cinema has another movie on the highly appreciated gay topic, "Love, Simon".
Both films have in common that the film is adapted from a good novel and both discover bright young actors (Timothee Chalamet and Nick Robinson were born in 1995). Call My by Your Namel is the heartfelt, passionate and touching love song of a young boy with his first love in the summer of Italy in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, Love, Simon is the experience of a modern American teenager when "secret" that he did not want to reveal was exposed in front of the whole school.
The two films have different storytelling styles but they have in common is the sincerity, sweetness, touching the emotions of the audience. And above all, contemporary American homosexual films have taken on a different color and left brighter messages.
The story "come out"
Italian director Call Me by Your Name Luca Guadagnino has been a phenomenon at the Sundance Film Festival since the beginning of 2017 and continues to resonate at the Oscars in 2018. And Love, Simon just debuted in the US audience in March 2018 and premiered in Vietnam from this weekend.
This romantic, comedy drama about adolescence is adapted from the best-selling novel, Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by writer Becky Albertalli. The central character is Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), a teenager with a happy family and three close classmates.
Simon has only one secret: he is gay. He sought every way to balance life with family, friends and especially an "offline" relationship online with another gay guy who is also hiding his identity through a virtual nick.
But Simon's secret is at risk of being revealed when a classmate finds out his emails have not been able to "sign out" on the school's computer yet. This person threatened, forcing Simon to help him approach one of the two beautiful girls in his group of friends.
Love, Simon has a rather slow beat in the first half. The director used most of the film's time to build a solid character mentality and Simon's relationships with family and friends before putting him on a challenge and at the same time revealing his character in the second half. .
The highlight of the film is how Simon builds up his dilemma about whether or not his gender is revealed. Although he was a bit scared, he thought homosexuality was simply his personal problem.
In a letter to Blue, his gay friend is also hiding his identity online, Simon said that "it's unfair that only gay people are forced to 'come out' (revealing themselves to be gay)."
This segment is handled very humorously when Simon imagines the scene of his heterosexual friends also suffer the "suffering" scene when forced to reveal himself as ... heterosexual to the surprise, surprise of his parents. surname.
Everyone deserves beautiful love
Simon is not afraid to "come out", the problem is just the right time. But when he was put in a situation where others were kept secret and threatened to reveal it to the whole school, he fell into tension and repeatedly made wrong behaviors.
The way to build a subtle character mentality, gentle storytelling, limited tendency or tragedy, very understanding of the teenage psychology of Love, Simon somewhat reminds the writer of another successful film. about the recent teenage age is The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) or the classic works of director John Hughes in the 1980s-1990.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Love, Simon received a "fresh" score of 92% of critics. Most of the famous experts are devoted to the 3.5 to 4-star film and praise the gentleness, sweetness, warmth and humor as well as the positive impact of the film on young audiences.
Another bright spot and talented young actors, including Nick Robinson as Simon and Katherine Langford (young Australian actress emerging thanks to the series 13 Reasons Why) as her best friend Leah. The two mature actors, Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel - playing the psychological and funny parents of Simon - also left a lot of love for the audience.
The bright, moving and romantic ending with the positive message "everyone deserves a great love in life" is another commendable feature of this film, helping the series on contemporary gay topics. America is not as many as tragic as before.
With a budget of about $ 17 million, Love, Simon grossed $ 55 million and was considered one of the most successful independent films earlier this year.
"I am still me, Simon."
One of the highlights of both Call Me by Your Name and Love, Simon is a way of building the mentality and behavior of parents when they discover their children are gay. In Love, Simon, Emily (Jennifer Garner) are open-minded mothers, almost having no problem hearing their son reveal that they are gay.
But the understanding behavior of Emily with her son after that makes us really touched and a bright point of humanity worthy of praise in the film.
She said: “I know you have a secret. When I was a child, I didn't seem to notice much. But the past few years, the more and more you see me trying to hide something and I feel like I'm suffocating about it. Many times I want to ask you, but I do not want to invade your private life. Maybe mom made a mistake. "
Simon answered, "No, no, Mom made no mistake." Emily continued: “Homosexuality is my personal affair. There are things that you must go through alone. Mom hates that. As soon as you say, ‘Mom, I'm still me,’ I want you to hear this: ‘I'm still you, Simon.’
“I will still be the son you love and love to tease, you will still be my father's support in everything. And I'm still the older brother who always praises his sister for her bad chef skills. What I need is to be comfortable, Simon. You deserve what you want. ”
The touching and understanding dialogue between mother and child is the bright spot full of humanity in Love, Simon. And this segment also reminds me of the dialogue between father and son of the main character in Call Me by Your Name.
"If the fire is on, don't put it out."
After a trip to Rome with Oliver (Armie Hammer) and his farewell to return to America, Elio (Timothee Chalamet) returns home with a broken heart. Unlike the mother who drove to meet him and respect the privacy and pain of her son, the father, Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), spends a talk with Elio.
This segment was handled beautifully by director Luca Guadagnino in the film, especially through Stuhlbarg's acting. But despite his successful handling, he still failed to convey the full length of the dialogue and was, in my opinion, the most memorable in André Aciman's original novel.
He looked at his son lovingly and without waiting for him to reveal, he said, “My life, how I live is my business. But remember, our hearts and bodies can only live once. ”
“Most people seem to have two lives to live with, one draft, one complete, and every other version in between. But there is only one, before I knew it, my heart was worn out, and my body will come when no one will look, let alone come. Right now there is sorrow. Father is not jealous of the pain. But I am jealous of your pain. ”
And as soon as he saw that the eyes of his son were teary and "dumbfounded for a moment" (as described in the novel), he continued: "You have a beautiful friendship. Perhaps more than friendship. In his father's position, most parents would expect the whole story to disappear, or pray that their son would pass it on quickly. ”
“But dad is not a parent like that. In your position, if there is pain, nourish it, and if the fire explodes, do not extinguish it, do not be cruel to it. Giving up can be a horrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and when others forget us faster than we want to. ”
“I sacrificed my body too much to be healed quickly, so by the age of 30 I was exhausted, there was nothing left to give whenever I started with a new person. But not feeling at all to avoid feeling a specific thing - it's a waste. ”
And before the end of the conversation, which he was essentially the speaker, the father told his son: "We will not talk about this any more. But I hope you will never hate me because I talked. You will be a terrible father if you want to talk to me someday but feel that the door is closed or not open enough. ”
Call Me by Your Name and Love, Simon, though different in many ways, has a similar humanity. Fortunately, in this life, whether you are gay or heterosexual, you have parents who are full of understanding, wisdom and love unconditionally like Emily's mother or Perlman's father in two movies. this.
And parents, if they know their children are gay, watch Call My by Your Name and Love, Simon to learn the humane behaviors of parents in these two films.
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Reference links: https://fmovies.mom/