'The Half of It' Review—A Sweet Rom-Com

Now that I've watched this movie, I can officially say that I know the half of it. I apologize for the dad joke. I'm not even a dad yet; I'm just warming up in case I am in about ten years.

Alice Wu's sophomore feature hit Netflix this Friday—The Half of It, a rom-com-dram starring Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, an introverted high schooler who meets Paul, a classmate who asks her to help him write love letters to his crush, Aster. Unbeknownst to Paul, Ellie has a crush on Aster herself.

It's incredibly refreshing to see a romance movie with Asian-American representation mixed in with a dash of an LGBTQ+ story. If this movie were terrible, that would have been quite unfortunate, but Wu was able to paint a charming rom-com with a steady hand, and the result is a very likable film.

This movie is a story about a girl wondering if she will ever find her other half. Her journey is quite fascinating because we learn a lot about her. She faces occasional racism, she gets paid to do work for her classmates, and she's not the most popular girl at her school.

Parts of the film seep into cliché rom-com territory; our two female leads, for example, meet when Ellie drops her items, and Aster helps her pick them up *mini eye roll*. However, the film is much less predictable than your standard romance film.

Why? Because this film has three leads, the perfect amount of points to create your by-the-books love triangle. But this movie isn't one person choosing between two; it's three people with three possible relationships that can come from the ending, making this movie much more unique than others in its genre.

It's a film that earns points for its unconventional story but loses a few points in its moments of theatricality. The romance can feel a bit fantastical at times with the outdated use of note-passing in the first act, and a long series of lovey-dovey romantic quotes thrown back and forth like a ping pong ball.

The film's portrayal of high school can be cartoonish and stereotypical, including an out-of-place slow-mo walking scene. There's also another scene where everyone in a classroom managed to be on their phones at the same time, and then viewed the same Instagram story and laughed at it simultaneously within two seconds of the story's posting.

As for the performances, they are quite good. Daniel Diemer is a likable presence, as is Alexxis Lemire. Lewis was very talented in this film, but her handling of the comedic material felt a bit too intense. Also, since the character of Ellie is very introverted, she remains stonefaced during this film, which can make it difficult for the audience to connect with her.

But this was a delightful film. It's not particularly groundbreaking, and on a technical level, the movie is a bit average. However, the characters are quite interesting, and we get to learn a lot about them throughout their journey to discover what love means to each of them.

I found it fascinating how Ellie wanted to learn about love, and she was able to discover a lot about herself through the experiences she went through and how comfortable she is when communicating with Aster.

However, as mentioned before, the film does falter, with a talent show scene and a character named Trig adding little to the overall story. The film's lines about love can feel a bit hokey and too carefully scripted to be spontaneous as well.

While there are a few hiccups along the way, this is a sweet rom-com with some refreshing representation. Will it take the route of other romance films and be sealed with a kiss? That's a question you should answer on your own. All you have to do now is open up Netflix, make a taco sausage, and press play.

Grade: ★★★✬☆ [7/10, B-]