My Review of "The Half Of It"

The Half Of It turned out to be a really good movie. I honestly wasn't looking forward to seeing this movie because I thought it would end up as a mere copy of the movie Roxanne (but then Roxanne was a copy of Cyrano de Bergerac). Little did I know there's a huge twist at the end that I saw coming but didn't see coming.

Of course being a teen movie here we go again starting off with quotes from some writer. There's a lot of quotes in this movie and I'm really tired of movies using quotes to try to make their movies seem like higher art of some sort. The main character Ellie throws out a lot of these quotes here and there. I get it, they're trying to let us know how smart she is.

She's so intelligent that she uses her writing skills to make money by writing her classmate's papers for them. That is until she gets stopped by her neighbor Paul. He's fallen head over heels for a girl named Aster. The problem is that Ellie also has feelings for Aster but Paul is willing to pay her a lot more money than she usually gets.

At this point I thought it would be a Roxanne movie where Aster and Ellie would fall in love with Paul being the mediator between the two. It is kind of like that but there are a few twists to this story. The direction that they took with this movie was really smart and a huge relief for me.

One of the twists that they implemented into this movie was the concept that all the characters in this movie have a sense of duty despite being teenagers. Some of them feel they have a duty to follow their religion, while others have a duty to keep the family happy by taking over family businesses. This sense of duty really puts a lot of restrictions for each of the characters that makes this movie seem a little more realistic than similar movies.

Another twist is that they really emphasized the friendship that Ellie and Paul develop throughout this movie. I think that these two had a great chemistry that really worked for this movie. There is obviously going to be some friction when it comes to their love of Aster but the journey to get there is really rewarding to us as the viewers. It's fun and innocent at the same time.

Each of the characters of this movie have such great personalities. I was enamored by their charm and youthful jubilance. Ellie isn't exactly a ball of light at the beginning of the movie but she grows throughout the movie and you can see a spark of joy start to build as she continues her journey.

If you have to watch this movie for one thing I really think you'll love the friendship that Ellie and Paul develop during their discovery of love and their attempts to woo Aster. The two seem like a younger version of Lee and Jack in the movie Can You Ever Forgive Me. The biggest similarity these movies have in common is the chemistry between the two characters. This movie also relies on the chemistry on the two characters to keep this movie afloat. Luckily the two of them were able to float to the clouds.

Overall, I really didn't think I was going to like this movie and was pleasantly surprised. There are a few cheesy moments sprinkled throughout this movie but they were innocent acts that teenagers would do. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I was shocked how much I liked this movie and I think a lot more people should check this movie out. There's a lot to offer.