Simple Simon is a 2010 Swedish movie directed by Andreas Öhman, starring Bill Skarsgård (Simon), Martin Wallström (Sam) and Cecilia Forss (Jennifer).
The movie is about Simon, an 18-year-old boy with severe Aspergers and is supposed to live with his big brother Sam and his girlfriend Frida. But Simon doesn't like changes and has to change his routines vastly if he is gonna stay with Sam and Frida, which he does for Sam's sake. However, as Frida can't stand Simon she breaks up with Sam, leaving him depressed. Simon tries to find a new girlfriend to Sam, so that they can live as they used to. But Simon doesn't quite understand how people and their emotions work.Simon meets Jennifer who is quite the opposite of Sam and thus thinks she and Sam would fit well together. But Sam wants to be left alone.
Simon likes physics and math and thinks of problems and routines like equations, and think that people must work the same way. But what he doesn't comprehend is that people are a lot more complex than that.
Simple Simon has examples of:
- Book Ends: The movie starts and ends with simon in his old oven, which he likes to think is a spaceship.
- Creature of Habit: Simon, as he has Asberger’s, always keeps his lifestyle very routine-based and, in his own words, doesn’t like changes and unpredictabilities.
- The Determinator: Simon does everything he can to find Sam a new girlfriend, even going so far as setting up a huge detailed plan which even involves him having to kidnap Sam, which is Played for Laughs ofcourse, to put him on a date.
- Genius Ditz: Justified with Simon as he has Asberger’s.
- Happy Ending: While Sam and Jennifer don't become a couple, Simon and Jennifer do.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Simon suffers from one when Sam can't stand his brother anymore and leaves him, which his Asperger's can't handle since Sam always has taken care of him. Having Simon suffer a breakdown and crawls into his old washtub that he likes to pretend is a spaceship.
- Also when his plan at getting Sam and jennifer together fails, he has a breakdown because he thinks he won't see Jennifer again. Which he does actually.
- Idiot Savant: Given his Asperger's, Simon is socially awkward and has absolutely no clue on how people and emotions work, but he is extremely good with calculations and fields of physics and mathematics.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He states in the first act that he doesn't like changes but he likes Sam, and thus he has to accept him having a girlfriend. Once they break up, Simon believes that finding Sam a new girlfriend will make him happy.
- Lack of Empathy: Given his Asperger's, Simon lacks cognitive empathy. While his Asperger's makes it hard for him to understand human emotions, this does not mean that he is selfish, as he loves his brother and is shown to genuenly just wants Sam to be happy again and thinks to do so is to find him a new girlfriend. Jennifer states that his lack of understanding how human emotions work, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want his beloved ones to be happy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Simon just not walked in Sam and Frida during an intercourse, that would make her leave, there probably wouldn't have been a movie.
- Nominal Hero: Subverted. Simon wants to find a new girlfriend to Sam because he thinks that it is a part of his equation for them to live a stable life. But it is not just for an "equation"; He wants his brother Sam to be happy too.
- No Social Skills: Simon. It is basically one of the driving themes of the movie. He doesn’t know how to solve emotional states work or what is socially acceptable.
- Schedule Fanatic: Simon is this in spades. Not only does he plan his day very precise and arrives at the time he predicts, but he thinks the world works in this mechanical way.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Simon has been gone for an entire day looking for a new girlfriend without calling Sam, Sam leaves as even he cant stand Simon's lack of understanding him.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Simon, given his severe Asberger’s.
