Table of Contents Show
- DIRECTOR: Alice Wu
- PRODUCERS: Alice Wu, M. Blair Breard, Likely Story Production Company
- CINEMATOGRAPHER: Greta Zozula
- CAST: Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, Alexxis Lemire
- RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
What do taco sausages, smart-looking caterpillar emojis, and philosophical ponderings on love have in common? Well, they’re all the makings for a good time! Sprinkle that into equal parts comedic and stirring coming-of-age film, and you’ve got The Half Of It. Written and Directed by Alice Wu (Saving Face), The Half Of It manages to encompass what you expect most and least from a teen coming-of-age film. Through Wu’s visionary and honest writing and Greta Zozula’s astonishing cinematography, the question of what love is, what it looks like, and if there is a right way to do it is posed. Though the usual tropes that many teen rom-com regularly employ indeed appear, they are used in a refreshingly realistic way that creates a worthwhile and genuine experience.
What is The Half of It about?
Taking place in the charmingly simple, fictionalized northwestern town of Squahamish, The Half Of It follows Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), an intelligent, ghost-writing high school senior, through her journey of self-discovery. In their small but cozy house near Squahamish’s train station, Ellie and her father, Edwin (Collin Chou), maintain a routine existence. Ellie covers his station master duties for him due to his grief over the death of her mother and his abject rejection by the townsfolk. With only his income supporting them, Ellie endeavors to supplement it however she can, utilizing her intellect and interest in the arts to write and sell essays to her classmates.
This secret entrepreneurial trade leads her to the pining Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), a well-meaning jock who enlists her to write a love letter to whom all consider the prettiest girl in school, Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire). The twist, though, is that Ellie happens to be pining over the exact same girl. Due to Ellie’s invisibility to her peers and the fact that she is still discovering her sexuality, her only way in is through Paul. This leads to a Catfish-esque scheme to woo Aster through letters and texts in Paul’s name with Ellie behind the pen.
Not your average rom-com
While some of those tropes might have rung a bell; a nerdy nobody, a pretty popular girl, and a goofy jock, those aspects are only the tip of the iceberg. Wu manages to take a well-known genre and create a new and fresh story that includes the teen rom-com beats and enhances them with layers of truth and authenticity. Taking inspiration from her own experience as a gay, Chinese-American daughter of immigrants, Wu created the story of Ellie, a young girl who is exploring her own sexuality in a nearly all-white cookie-cutter small town.
The issue of race is an aspect of the movie that is understated. It isn’t explicitly addressed, but, like it often is in reality, is silently present and interwoven in the social structure of the town and school. Ellie, being one of the two people of color that appear, is an outlier among the seemingly hive-minded student body and is often teased for her last name, Chu. Wu captured perfectly how prejudice doesn’t always take obvious or even menacing forms, how it can appear in the act of being sidelined, sabotaged, and referred to as “the Chinese girl.”
Similarly, Wu created an even less obvious perspective on the issue of race through the school’s popular girl, Aster. While Aster fills the role of the high school queen bee, she feels trapped in her life as a product of the squeaky clean environment she is in. She is a Latina yet she is able to visually pass as white enough. She and her father, who is Squahamish’s handsome pastor, fits the European beauty standards just enough to be accepted by the town. As a result, what we see is a well formulated struggle of self identity. Aster knows that she is “lucky” to be dating the son of the wealthiest family in town, yet she isn’t fully content to let her life be written for her. This struggle opens the doors to the inventive, unintentional love triangle between her, Paul, and Ellie.
Movies involving love triangles can often leave one feeling dissatisfied with the outcome. More often than not, the question of who will win the affection of the love interest is easily predicted. Wu’s realism kept the movie from becoming just another predictable movie. Each of the three main characters are fleshed-out individuals, as opposed to cut-and-paste players in a love triangle game.
complex relationships beget complex triangles
Paul, who could easily be another unlikable jock character, is emotionally intelligent and creative. He has personal goals and dreams, he is selfless and sensitive, and he is a supportive and kind friend. The organic growth of his and Ellie’s friendship is crafted both dynamically and unexpectedly. The duo of Ellie, all tough-love and quick wit, and Paul, affable and golden-retriever-esque, opens the doors for many humorous beats and thoughtful storytelling.
Writing as Paul, Ellie is able to connect with Aster, exchanging quotes, and musings over their shared literary interests and helping Aster express her suppressed feelings of being trapped. Through connecting these two characters, Wu has created a nuanced maybe-they-will romance that has the potential to shake the small town, making the scheme high stakes for Ellie. Through Ellie, Wu tells an important story about queer youth, while avoiding the triggering, vitriolic opposing characters, and conflict that one might expect from an LGBTQ film.
Ellie: A Realistic protagonist
The character of Ellie is amazingly nuanced, having a number of internal struggles and spaces for growth beyond the love triangle. Wu crafted a teenage girl who is so human that everyone can empathize with her, and anyone can see aspects of themselves in her. Ellie navigates through the issue of her own potential and how that is affected by her still-mourning father, as well as the issue of religion and what she makes of it. Living in Squahamish, she has settled into the role of the person behind everyone else—their essays, the church’s piano accompaniment, Paul’s letters—and is struggling with finding her own voice. Like real human beings, the characters have true flaws and idiosyncrasies, they make mistakes and learn from them, and end the film having grown in realistic ways.
Leah Lewis, currently starring in the CW’s Nancy Drew, is a beacon of light in the film. Expressive and charming, her ability to authentically inject so many quirks and mannerisms in Ellie is absorbing. If there is anyone to watch out for in the coming years, it is Lewis. As her counterpart, the lovable nature of Diemer’s Paul could only be achieved by this actor. In his role of tongue-tied goof, Diemer manages to hoodwink the audience as he reveals more and more nuance beyond the stuttered lines and cheesy grins. You can see that there is more to both the character and the actor, and his charm is more than winning.
The pairing of Lewis and Diemer is easily the most compelling relationship within the film, which ties into the line of thought that platonic forms of love are equally as important as romantic. The popular girl trope is turned on its head with Alexxis Lemire, a relative newcomer to feature films. Lemire’s performance is understated to the point of being undeniably natural. When Aster tries to explain how she feels unsure of herself and her place in her community, it’s impossible not to believe her. Lemire, along with Lewis and Diemer, has incredible ability to emote in such a way that you are never taken out of the moment.
The characters’ issues and feelings have actual stakes, and the leads’ performances make them all the more believable.
The Beauty Beyond the writing
The genius of the way the love triangle is demonstrated is in the various forms of storytelling that the correspondence between the characters take. Through a remarkable mix of editing and voice over, the plot is moved forward in unique ways. A particularly engaging moment occurs when Ellie (writing as Paul) and Aster are creating an impromptu joint graffiti mural, communicating through spray-painted messages. With the fun and interesting modes of delivery, the dialogue between the two seems to be happening in real-time, with certain jumps and cuts themselves indicating reactions.
The camera coupled with the use of editing merge to be their own living entity, as if they are narrating alongside Ellie and Aster’s voices reading the notes. Many of the film’s laughs are a result of say, a particularly quick cut, or a prolonged silent moment. On-screen text messages in films are nothing new, yet Wu’s direction and writing give the device a new life. Reading a typed message on a screen can feel impersonal and stale, but with Zozula’s use of framing and Wu’s comedic direction, the effect is seamless.
Artful visuals: the cherry on top
The sleepy, conservative town of Squahamish comes alive with Zozula’s mesmerizing cinematography. With sweeping wide shots of the scenery and lush colors, the film gives off a decidedly northwestern vibe.
The color palette and grade create a slice-of-life feeling across the film, bringing the visuals of an indie film to mind. The colors, warm yellows and reds paired with calming blues and greens, intermingle to produce both a current and retro look, somehow enhancing the other-worldly artistic nature of the film and grounding it in reality simultaneously. A particularly beautiful scene involving a hidden hot spring takes the cake for visuals, as it is both dreamy and mesmerizing.
Should You Watch the half of it? Resounding Yes!
As The Half Of It nears its end, it is likely that one will attempt to predict the outcome of the triangle. The great news is, it isn’t nearly as simple as that, as Wu has spun a tale with a far less predictable ending.
We see three young adults grapple with the idea of love and make discoveries about who they are and what love truly means to them. The Half Of It challenges you to examine your own opinions about love, and hopefully, empathize with people whose stories vary from what you know. Films like this are perfect examples of the “came for the ‘X’, stayed for the ‘Y'” saying. In this case, one will likely come for the fun rom-com antics and stay for, well, everything.
