dial911book Just saw this movie on Netflix. It's an independent and relatively low budget film, and like many good "indies," Love Simple is raw, non-homogenized and intriguing.The initial credits give that "indie" feeling immediately; yet the initial soundtrack music foreshadows unbalance, uncertainty and creative sparks by using an upbeat rock instrumental in a strange time signature you can't count. Only at the end of the movie did I fully realize the brilliance there.(There are some other interesting elements to the music soundtrack as well – listen for them. There's a transitional music fragment played on a tired upright piano, for example, that is just perfect for the scene. Kudos to the music composer, Danny Mordujovich.) Another reviewer here thought the acting was poor. I respectfully but totally disagree, because like many good indies this film presents an unpolished vision of real people in challenging, painful situations. "Reality" shows have "real people" and they don't act very well or at all, but that makes sense. Here in Love Simple, however, the director and the actors create the characters to communicate certain ideas and feelings in the persons of otherwise seemingly real people. The rough edges in the acting reinforce the realism while the story proceeds along its message path.At first, the story line seemed to fall in the "things get bad to worse" genre of many indie screenplays. I enjoy the character studies in such films, but many times feel disappointed with the story line's downward spiral or, sometimes, the ultimately "same BS, different day" fatalistic outlook on life.Love Simple, however, is not that simple. Indeed, as the film progresses, the story becomes at once clearer and more nuanced. I won't spoil it by giving it away – but this film is worth watching carefully. Some of the audio (as in many indies) is under volume or the lines are rushed, so you might stop and replay parts. It is worth hearing every line.There is a philosophy of love in this movie that you rarely see in film. If you have read Harville Hendrix's book, Getting the Love You Want, then you'll especially recognize (at the end of the film) some deeper psychological insights. If you know the term agape love from the Christian view, then the internal struggles of the characters in Love Simple become quite dramatic.Love is not just liking. Love is not necessarily admiring. Love does not rest upon a checklist of sellable qualities. To truly love is to desire to heal and restore another human being, and to carry on for as long as it takes.Watch Love Simple with a thoughtful person, or the person you love, and then explore the film's story and ideas in conversation. Involve your hearts and minds. Enjoy the journey.

Elisha Clark This has got to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Add some scripture to it and it would be on par with "C Me Dance." Halfway through the movie, all I could think of was taking mental notes of everything wrong with it so that I could write a negative review. I've never done that before.The entire cast was amateur and in the wrong profession, but the lead male actor was a new level of bad. He sounded robotic, like he was reading the whole way through. They all did. And not even read well, but like a bunch of grade-schoolers rushing through a script at a table reading, or the narrators on Teen Mom. Even if the script had been okay, which it wasn't, the lines were delivered terribly, and sometimes even with emphasis on the wrong words, changing the intended meaning of the line.The audio for outdoor scenes sounded like they were dubbed over by the actors speaking directly into a microphone in an echoey room. Other sound effects like slapping or punching were completely off, not to mention that those fight scenes were incredibly poorly choreographed. The soundtrack wasn't the worst music I've ever heard, but it did not fit at all with the scenes, and the musical sound quality was poor and usually at the wrong volume.Any nurse or first year med student could have reviewed the medical aspect of this movie and told them how incorrect half of it was. It was nonsensical. Don't make a movie that includes a fair amount of medical content if you have no knowledge of medicine and won't bother to hire a fact-checker who does.The casting was wrong on many levels, but also, don't cast an average looking woman to play the part of an "incredibly sexy model." There was nothing wrong with her looks, but she was obviously not a model of any kind. They completely missed the mark on suspension of disbelief.The only reason I'll give this movie a 2 instead of a 1, is that the idea for the plot wasn't a bad one, it was just poorly executed. I think it is worth exploring the facets of a relationship and how people lie in the beginning, and then taking it to extreme levels. I have MS, and I've had to deal with issues surrounding whether or not to come clean about this fact in new relationships and when to do so. I could have identified with the lead female role in her situation, but the story was so poorly told that I couldn't enjoy it. What a shame.I don't recommend this movie to anyone for any reason. Waste of time.

jtcjr2 Bravo to the makers of Love Simple! This is a wonderful film with a great cast. The father is superb, and the girl with lupus does a great job portraying someone with the disease. In addition, the friends of the would be lovers excel in their roles. It's a comedy, yes, and a romance, yes, but it also provides a real-life depiction of how illness can affect a relationship...either between the partners themselves, or because of an illness to a loved one. In addition, the back-drop of Park Slope, Brooklyn provides the film with a charming and yet gritty setting, which essentially mirrors the relationship between the two central characters. It's a must see to anyone who has met their partner in a laundromat, or has had to overcome some serious obstacles in order to maintain and grow a relationship.