Movie Review - The Half Of It

Could be described as a lesbian version of Cyrano de Bergerac, which is a sweet thing for lesbians, particularly teenage lesbians, wanting something in the form of representation. It's a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age story for young girls, regardless of their sexual orientation. Considering the outlet, the tone and the scale, this film is in league with a rash of teen romantic comedies released recently. Given the story, this film is akin to Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018). Yet, I don't think this film is as good as that 2018 rom-com. I think the romance here is relatively fine, but the comedy isn't all that great. Unfortunately, I don't think the lead characters are as engaging. I get the personalities here, particularly of the two main girls, are meant to be not as engaging. They're meant to be more awkward or shy or reserved, which is fine, but the plot is a bit lame, so that doesn't help.

There have been plenty of queer films, which begin with a potentially queer person being in a seeming hetero-normative relationship and then eventually moving into a gay relationship or even secretly having a gay relationship as they discover who they are. This is essentially what happens in Alex Strangelove (2018). In these romantic comedies, it's obvious which pair should end together. The barriers that are put in between the pair to keep them apart can't be too ridiculous, but those barriers have to be interesting enough obstacles. It's probably best not to make the obstacles too convoluted. It's also best to give them good dramatic punches. Alex Strangelove strikes that balance. This film does not. This film gave me vibes of Love, Simon (2018), which is a queer film that is too convoluted and keeps the queerness too much at bay, sapping any expression of queerness until the end and very briefly. This film isn't as much of an offender as Love, Simon, but it comes close in that regard.

Leah Lewis (Nancy Drew and Charmed) stars as Ellie Chu, a senior in high school who is a bit of a lonely girl. She doesn't have a lot of friends or people with whom she spends time. She is somewhat popular in that she has a business of writing papers for her classmates. She also has a job at her town's train station. She appears to be the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who seems to be good at cooking, especially of dumplings. Even with all her help, Ellie's father can't keep up with the bills and the power is on the verge of being shut off, so Ellie is desperate to make more money.

Daniel Diemer plays Paul Munsky, a football player who claims to be in love with a girl, but he says he's not good with words. He asks Ellie to help him write a letter to this girl. He says he'll pay Ellie to do so. Because Ellie needs the money, she decides to help. Unfortunately, Paul as a character is so dumb and dense that it's so frustrating. In comedies, there are typically dumb characters that add levity or silly humor. Yet, Paul's dumbness is a joke that quickly wears off. Paul is so dumb that he can't see for the majority of this film that Ellie is in love with the same girl that he claims to love.

One letter doesn't turn out to be enough. Ellie decides to start a paper correspondence, which eventually transitions into text messaging. The first letter is $50. It's never explained how much money Paul is paying to Ellie for subsequent letters or messages. It doesn't seem like he is paying her for those subsequent things because the money issue is never raised again, but if she were, she'd be exploiting him. She's essentially exploiting him any way. It's akin to the idea behind catfishing where you pretend to be someone else in order to romance a person.

Alexxis Lemire co-stars as Aster Flores, the girl on whom Paul has a crush or with whom he is in love. She's the one essentially being catfished. She's the daughter of a local pastor, so she was raised in the church. She seems to have same-sex attraction but openly pursuing it is something she probably doesn't do because of her religious background. She mentions that her father is strict, but that kind of homophobia isn't explicit in the film. She's a bit of an intellectual, having an interest in abstract art and repressed, British literature. There's nothing wrong with her being an intellectual, but it represents a kind of elitism, a trope to further underscore the difference between her and Paul and the rest of the town quite frankly.

It's a cliché and stereotype that as a football player, Paul is just a literal meathead, very simple minded. He's either incapable or not interested in intellectual things. There are plenty of student-athletes who do both very well. They're jocks and they're brainy or smart enough to know something like The Remains of the Day or Wim Wenders. Making Paul so dumb makes the dichotomy too easy. Yet, the script does have Paul spout shallow platitudes about love that obviously turn out to be not true.

Going back to Love, Simon and the comparisons there, that film isolated the queer character around straight characters and made the film more about the queer person's relationship with straight people then truly engaging with other queer people and depicting a queer romance. This film isn't as egregious as Love, Simon in how much it sidelines the queer romance. Lewis and Lemire get screen time together and generate some chemistry. However, the film does lean on Ellie's relationship with Paul, the straight guy, rather than Aster, the fellow queer girl. Ellie's relationship with Aster ultimately is more problematic when it should be the more authentic one. That's a little disappointing.

Rated PG-13 for brief language and teen drinking.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 45 mins.

Available on Netflix.