A friendship starts to form between Melvin and Simon. The relationship theory works wonderfully in this particular situation. The uncertainty reduction theory takes place almost immediately after Simon and Melvin start the road trip to Simon's parents house. Simon, while talking to Carol the waitress, confesses why he and his parents haven't spoken in years, this brings out Simon's vulnerability and Melvin can relate to him.
Next is social penetration theory. After talking about his parents, Simon and Melvin start to slowly connect with each other and Melvin realizes that he was a little hard on Simon.
The relationship continues to grow through the end of the movie resolving the conflicts between Melvin and Simon. Simon moves in with Melvin and both receive relationship satisfaction with each other. Simon is happy to have a home and Melvin is happy to have a friend and a dog.
Simon's friend, Frank Sachs, is an antique dealer that throughout the movie he tries to help Simon when it is convenient for Frank. In the opening of the movie Frank is confronting Melvin regard Simon's lost dog. Because Frank is African-American Melvin stereotypes him as a "big scary guy" and because Frank is a friend with Simon, then he must be gay as well. Melvin continues to treat Frank as a stereotype and talk to him with derogatory remarks until Frank confronts Melvin and the conflict begins.
Throughout the movie Melvin has brief encounters with Frank that are friendly, but have no self-disclosure and high self-monitoring from Frank. Frank tends to use high levels of verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness with Melvin in order to emphasize several of his statements. By using this measure of conflict, Frank breaks down Melvin's psychological mindset and demands him to respect what Frank tells him. .
Although the characters of Melvin and Frank are not continually running into each other during the length of the movie, their relationship is unique because there are no other characters in the movie with an interpersonal relationship with Melvin that is as aggressive yet confirming.
