Simple Simon “I rymden finns inga känslor” (Andreas Öhman, 2010): Sweden

Viewed by: Demi Mellett. Viewed at the: Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011

I loved the movie Simple Simon and believe it would be well-liked by both genders as well as adult from seventeen to seventy. Simple Simon is an endearing story about brotherly love, friendship and how Asperger’s Syndrome can change more than one person’s life.

This is the first time I have seen a film with actors Bill Skarsgård (who is playing Simon), and Martin Wallstrom (who plays Simon’s brother, Sam). I found both of the characters to be not only believable in their respective roles, but also felt they shared a real kinship on screen. In this movie we get to see life in the eye’s of Simon, who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

Simple Simon begins with Simon’s mother yelling at a canister inside their home. Simon is hiding inside this canister which he calls his “spaceship”. He often goes inside his spaceship when overwhelmed and wants to be alone with his thoughts. Simon’s mother, played by Lotta Tejle, could pull the lid off the top, but instead she continues to yell at at Simon to get out. Simon’s father, played by Ingmar Virta, then begins to place money into one of the tubes as a bribe to get Simon to come out. The audience sits in anticipation to see if the money moves from the tube but there is still no response from Simon who is encapsulated inside his makeshift space ship inside his room. I found this scene to be hilarious.

Moments later the film shifts to a young couple in love painting the interior of an apartment when the telephone interrupts their painting. Sam, Simon’s older brother, answers the phone; there are some grunts and groans on the telephone and then Sam hangs up the phone and looks to his girlfriend. His girlfriend disappointedly states, “Go! Just go”!

The director then takes us back to the parents’ home where the two brothers begin to engage in space ship correspondence, making microphone noises after each passing of words. Sam says: “Earth to Simon!” “ksshht” “Are you there?” “ksshht “Over” “ksshht”. The audience waits in anticipation but there is no response. Sam then moves Simon in with he and his girlfriend, Frida, played by Sophie Hamilton. Sam is the only one who understands Simon and gets along with him so Simon is happy to move in.

Shortly after arriving at his new home, Simon emerges from his capsule while the director cleverly provides the audience with mathematical images as Simon tells the audience about his daily activities throughout the week. For instance, Simon only likes circles thus all of his meals through the seven days of the week must be in circular dimensions (i.e., pizza, eggs, etc.). Simon likes space and to play the drums because they both have or are circular objects.

The real meat of the story comes when Frida, Sam’s girlfriend, cannot stand to live in thier home with Simon and his precise ways so she decides to leave Sam. He becomes very depressed and Simon takes it upon himself to strategically plan how to replace Frida for Sam so that he is happy again. Through this quest, Simon meets Jennifer. The journey that the writers take you on is not only funny, but very touching and well written. This film somewhat reminds me of Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman which is about two brothers; one with a symptom that puts the other brother to the test, but ultimately beneath it all, there is brotherly love.

This film not only had a happy story line but also the colors were very bright and contrast throughout the whole movie, which personally put me in a good mood and made the film that much better. The colors really brought out the happiness and excitement to this movie. Everybody wore colors that stood out and it was almost always a nice sunny day in every scene.

I gave this movie five stars and I think that it is a movie worth seeing. It is an enjoyable light-hearted movie. Everyone leaving the theater left with a smile on their face because it is simply just one of those “feel-good movies”.