The Half of It Synopsis: When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn’t expect to become his friend – or fall for his crush.
Ellie Chu is a student with a promising future. Smart but introverted, she makes extra cash by writing school papers for her classmates. When Paul, an awkward jock, offers her money to write a love letter to the object of his desire, Ellie agrees⊠but only to pay her widowed father’s electricity bill that’s three months overdue. It’s not a difficult assignment because Paul’s crush, Aster, is Ellie’s crush as well. While “Paul” and Aster begin to correspond, Ellie and Paul’s friendship deepens, as do Ellie’s feelings for Aster.
âWhen one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.â
From the beginning, The Half of It warns us this is not a romance. And that’s mostly true. This movie has romantic aspects, but they don’t make up the entirety of the film as many coming-of-age stories do. Paul (Daniel Diemer) and Ellie (Leah Lewis) both yearn for Aster (Alexxis Lemire), and Aster’s interest in them seems confusing and perhaps even a little guarded.
But while Aster is the catalyst that brings Ellie and Paul together, their blossoming friendship keeps them together, and frankly, it’s the best part of the movie. Two people who have never spoken are brought together by the pursuant of love. Ellie does her best to help Paul win Aster’s affection, even pretending to be him through messages because of Paul’s inarticulate nature and lack of confidence.
The Half of It is a teen coming-of-age movie that truly felt authentic. The school isn’t full of ridiculously good-looking teenagers with a lot of money and absent parents. Their problems are relatable without being melodramatic. Alice Wu also does a beautiful job of capturing the feel of a small, predominately white town. Squamish is not charmingly quaint, either. It’s dreary and conservative, and you get the feeling that not many students will make it out to experience everything the world has to offer.
This is driven home by the fact that Aster is seventeen years old, and her popular jock boyfriend is already asking her to marry him. Ellie has the brains to make it out of Squamish and attend a good college, but she feels responsible for staying close to home for her father. Paul, on the other hand, has no desire to leave. He wants to stay and sell sausages, something he’s pretty good at. Three very different trajectories, and as Ellie points out, we don’t always get what we want. Sometimes, the happily ever after looks a lot different from what we’re used to seeing in these films, and at least in The Half of It, it works.
I’ve read criticism that The Half of It is not as focused on the LGBTQ storyline as some would have liked. Given that I am not a part of the LGBTQ community, I don’t feel like it’s my place to comment too deeply on what the movie should or shouldn’t have done. Still, I thought Wu struck a delicate balance by acknowledging Ellie’s sexuality, especially while living in such a conservative town, but not making it the focal point of Ellie’s story either.
Wu does an excellent job with pacing and balancing the tone. It also has a wonderful cast, although if I could have one gripe, it would be that Alexxis Lemire cannot pass for a seventeen-year-old. It was distracting how much older she looked than the other “teenagers” in the movie. One of the movie’s highlights is its soundtrack. When did I last hear Gordon Lightfoot and Chicago in a teen dramedy? Every song was perfect.
The Half of It is a lovely coming-of-age movie full of sharp dialogue and genuinely funny moments. It is one of Netflix’s better originals, and I hope it will reach a broad audience. It deserves attention, for sure.
Watched: 05/05/2020
Notable Song: If You Leave Me Now by Chicago
