Movie Review: The Half Of It

“Love is messy and horrible and selfish..and bold.” – Ellie Chu

On May 1st, Netflix blessed us with Alice Wu’s The Half Of It. It was Friday night, and I felt like I needed some love in my life during these strange times, I was pleased to see The Half Of It offering a main character that was both Asian and LGBTQ. I prefer to watch anything that’s not your usual boy-meets-girl, and I fell for Ellie the moment I watched the trailer. Plus I’m also a sucker for the “hiding behind a screen” trope.

The Half Of It is a coming-of-age, queer rom-com starring Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, a bright but lonely Chinese teenager navigating high school and growing up in the conservative, small town of Squahamish. She does her fellow students’ essays for extra cash. When approached by a jock named Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) to write a love letter for another girl on his behalf, she initially refuses, saying it wouldn’t be authentic. Unfortunately, her family’s financial circumstances change her mind, and she initially agrees to write one letter.

The girl in question is Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), the beautiful daughter of the town Pastor. It’s clear to the audience that Ellie has had a crush on Aster for a long time and Ellie has an idea of Aster built on her own observations. She plays the piano at her father’s church services, and longingly gazes at her in the classroom, but the two do not really interact much at first. You can really feel her yearning for Aster in the interactions they do share throughout the film though. You could say that Ellie is in love with Aster. Ellie sends a letter, including a quote from Wim Wenders, and Aster soon writes back, challenging “Paul”, and the pair can’t resist sending more letters to Aster. Paul is eager to text Aster and invite her on a date, but it’s Ellie that always delays it sending more letters.

Paul eventually takes matters into his own hands and takes Aster out, but it doesn’t go well. It’s not awkward to watch as Paul comes across as lovable, but slightly slow on the uptake. The two have nothing in common, and Paul thinks he has blown his shot. To his surprise, Aster continues to text him, and Ellie decides to continue to coach him (this time with no charge) and she tries to school him in Aster’s interests. Ellie has paid so much attention to Aster, we see that she has built up a view of her character and tries to know what she likes and doesn’t like, in particular with things like literature. They text across a messenger app, but it’s Ellie that Aster’s exchanging messages with.

Whilst this is going on, at the same time, a friendship blossoms between Paul and Ellie and I think it’s beautiful. There is a scene where Ellie tries to teach Paul to hold a conversation with Aster by playing ping pong and it turns into Paul letting Ellie talk about herself and we see her open up to him about her family. I think Paul delivers most of the comedy in the film as he says he’s not good with words, and he’s not wrong. Throughout the film, he trades time away from the hustle and bustle of his family for quiet movie nights in with Ellie and her father, where he cooks them food. His smile when they enjoy his take on tacos is lovely! I found the comedy in The Half Of It to be cute and tender, mostly making me smile rather than laugh out loud. This makes it a more heartwarming film. I prefer this rather than slapstick comedy and pushing for laughs. I have not seen Daniel Diemer in any other role, yet I cannot imagine anyone else playing Paul. He does a perfect job!

Church and religion feature quite a bit in the film, I think this helps emphasise the isolation of living in a small town full of churchgoers when one might not feel as connected to God as the rest of the community is. Therefore it is quite fitting that one of the most dramatic scenes concluding the film takes place in the church. You can pick out little bits in the film that symbolise certain things, but I’ll leave these up to the viewer. I wouldn’t like to give more away about the rest of the plot, only to say that it avoids typical endings, choosing a different route for its characters.

What message is the film trying to give? What is love? I guess that depends on who you ask. That is what I like about film, people can interpret things in different ways. If you were to ask Paul at the beginning, he would probably say “It’s about the effort you put in” if you were to ask Ellie or Aster, the answer might be something along the lines of “Not about finding your perfect half, but trying and failing” or, “Something to believe in“

The reviews that I have seen so far have been positive, and so they should be. It’s an excellent film. I found this to be a really refreshing take on teenagers and love. Although, at the same time, it took me back to high school days. Sometimes, some people will want the film storyline to turn out differently than what it does. That does not always necessarily mean that you haven’t finished watching a good film. It’s just that your enjoyment may be less than it could have been had you not already had preconceived ideas about how you wanted the plot to go. I would hate for people to say they were “disappointed” by this film.

To me, The Half Of It was a story about the idea of love, about relationships, and about growing up. I felt it was largely about the longing and yearning. So much longing. There doesn’t have to be romantic pairings for a film to be called a love story. After all, Ellie does tell the audience at the beginning that “This is not a love story.. or not one where anyone gets what they want“, what we get is a journey of self-discovery, understanding, and at the end, confrontation and truth.

Will you be watching The Half of It? Tell us in the comments below!