The Half of It: A (Mostly Full) Experience

Coming of age movies that center around young adults always intrigue me. They're one of my favorite genres of movies not only because of their unbelievable degree of relatability, but their capacity to tell wonderful stories about the range of emotions people can experience. Teenagers are volatile, for better or worse - they make wild decisions, try so many new things and can be very emotional, and these movies reflect that - be it the incredibly heartfelt journeys seen in movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or the narratives that are intertwined with comedy, such as Superbad or Booksmart.

When I sat down to watch The Half of It, I was fully expecting a story that focused on a high school romance with some coming of age elements thrown in the middle; instead, I found myself watching an incredible tale that, rather than focusing on a particular relationship, presented a thought-provoking take on the concept of love itself, and it completely surprised me in the process.

The movie follows the high school life of Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a girl who's clearly a cut above her classmates and thus writes their assignments and papers for them for a small fee. She has a secret, however - she has a crush on Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), one of the most popular girls in school, but is unable to even muster the courage to talk to her - until fate presents her Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) a high school jock who is infatuated with Aster and wants to send her a love letter. What starts as an ordinary job for Ellie quickly becomes personal as she and Aster start to communicate more and more, finally giving Ellie the chance to get to know her - albeit posing as Paul the entire time.

From the first 10 minutes of the movie, you never would have guessed that this film was anything more than the same old romantic comedy that you see on your Netflix home screen every now and then; I certainly didn't think so, at the very least. However, from the time the main plot starts to take off, I realized that this movie was different, even though some of the cliches were still present and the movie still indulged in the occasional cheesy moment.

As the plot unraveled and we learnt more about the characters and their lives, I half expected the movie to soar into the realms of cheesiness at several points, but to my surprise, it was grounded throughout, and even presented some layered moments that, contrary to feeling too lofty considering the overall premise of the movie, seemed to fit right in. The setting also helped with this - making it a small town instead of a sprawling metropolitan city helped create a feeling of intimacy with the people on screen.

Speaking of, the main cast was fleshed out and developed, and the pacing of the story was perfect - building up more and more until it all came to a head to deliver a genuinely touching climax that, unlike alot of movies, felt raw, emotional and real. The movie also excels at dealing with a multiplicity of topics that go far beyond the typical romantic story - loneliness, bullying, and of course, being queer.

Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks that prevent this movie from being as good as it could have been: at times, the characters make decisions that don't make much sense, particularly in the last act of the movie. There was one moment in particular that really got me - it didn't bother me immediately, but the more I thought about it afterward, the more I thought that it made the conclusion of the movie seem rather forced - it felt like the action in question needed to happen to progress the plot, not because of the character itself. Maybe this could have been fixed with more runtime, but seeing as how the movie already stretches up to 104 minutes, I can understand why the producers would have wanted to not drag it out for too long.

The writing is also a tad inconsistent - in some places, it comes off as rather shaky, but on the flip side, the movie delivers some of the best lines I've heard from a piece of media in a while. I should also give a special shoutout to the ending: I'm a particular fan of how it was handled, and while I don't want to get into it much here because of spoilers, I do plan on tackling it in another post.

All in all, The Half of It is a very solid watch. It presents a more interesting take on the typical high school romance and further fleshes it out with great characters, an interesting setting, and themes that are far more than what initially meets the eye, and I would highly recommend watching it. I'm giving The Half of It a 7.5/10.

Hope you're all doing well, and staying safe!