| The Half of It | |
|---|---|
 Release poster | |
| Directed by | Alice Wu |
| Written by | Alice Wu |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Greta Zozula |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Anton Sanko |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Half of It is a 2020 Americancoming-of-agecomedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced byAlice Wu. It starsLeah Lewis,Daniel Diemer, andAlexxis Lemire, withEnrique Murciano,Wolfgang Novogratz,Catherine Curtin,Becky Ann Baker, andCollin Chou in supporting roles. It is loosely inspired byEdmond Rostand's 1897 playCyrano de Bergerac, and follows a Chinese-American student helping the schooljock woo a girl whom, secretly, they both desire.
The film was released worldwide onNetflix on May 1, 2020. It received positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised Wu's direction and screenplay, as well as the performances of Lewis and Diemer. It was honored with the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at the 19thTribeca Film Festival, while Wu was nominated forBest Screenplay at the36th Independent Spirit Awards.
Ellie Chu lives in the remote town of Squahamish with her grieving widower father, where she performs most of hisstation master andsignalman duties. She makes extra money byghostwriting essays for her classmates' assignments. The socially ostracized Ellie is secretly interested in Aster Flores, who happens to be reluctantly dating Trig, a narcissistic and popular boy from a wealthy family.
Ellie's next-door neighbor Paul Munsky, an inarticulateAmerican footballer and future heir of afamily sausage business, requests that Ellie help him ghostwrite a love letter to Aster. Ellie eventually agrees to help in order to help her household pay off its bills. Under the identity of Paul, Ellie begins a heartfelt correspondence with Aster about their shared interests in art and literature through letters and text messages.
Ellie's English teacher encourages her to apply toGrinnell College after noticing the proficiency of the essays she had ghostwritten for her classmates, but Ellie plans to attend the University of Washington and stay in Squahamish to remain with her father.
Ellie sets up Paul on a date with Aster, but his obtuse conversational skills hamper his interactions. Ellie planned to give up on helping Paul until he helps defend Ellie from bullies. Ellie starts teaching Paul about art and literature for him to keep up with his fake persona.
Ellie observes from afar that Paul's second date with Aster starts off as badly as the first. In a desperate bid to save the evening, Ellie sends Aster text messages via the user account secretlyshared by the phones of both Ellie and Paul while Paul plays along by pretending to type on his phone. Paul on the following day divulges to Ellie that he had kissed Aster - without genuine approval or input from Aster, and even despite telling Aster to keep their relationshipplatonic - unnerving Ellie.
Paul thwarts bullies' attempts to sabotage Ellie's music recital. Later, Paul stumbles upon letters from Ellie imploring renowned food critics to comment on Paul's original culinary innovations, and is filled with gratitude.
Aster takes Ellie to a secluded hot spring where they share an intimate conversation. Ellie discusses her own atheism, while Aster reveals that Trig intends to marry her. After Aster takes Ellie back to the latter's home, Aster stumbles upon Paul and verifies that he believes in God. From her bedroom window Ellie watches Paul and Aster kiss, upon which she decides to admit into Grinnell College.
During Paul's football match, Aster cheers for Paul, but Paul is more thrilled by Ellie's cheers. Afterwards, mistakenly perceiving them to have developed feelings for each other, Paul attempts to kiss Ellie, but she rejects his advances. They notice an upset Aster observing them. Paul deciphers from Ellie's reaction that Ellie loves Aster. Due to his religious upbringing, he warns Ellie that she is in sin and will go to hell. Later, when Paul delivers his sausages to Ellie's father, they have a conversation about the meaning of love. Paul comes to terms with Ellie's sexuality and chooses to love her as she is.
Witnessed by congregants from across the entire town, Trig proposes to Aster at church, only to be interjected by Ellie and then Paul, who lectures the congregants on love and authenticity. Aster recognizes Ellie's words written from a previous letter and realizes that it had been Ellie all along who had written the letters and text messages as Paul; she slaps Paul and storms out.
Before leaving for Grinnell College, Ellie apologizes to Aster for deceiving her. Aster admits her feelings for Ellie and her future in Grinnell's art school. Kissing Aster, Ellie tells her that she will see her in a couple of years.
Paul, who is now confident about his career prospects, sees Ellie off at the train platform, promising to continue visiting her father. As perEk Villain, a film they had previously watched together, Paul runs alongside Ellie's moving train, provoking Ellie's laughter along with tears.
Alice Wu started writingThe Half of It in the aftermath of the2016 United States presidential election.[2][3] The screenplay drew inspiration from the 1897 playCyrano de Bergerac byEdmond Rostand.[4][5] In April 2019, it was announced thatLeah Lewis,Alexxis Lemire,Daniel Diemer,Becky Ann Baker,Catherine Curtin,Wolfgang Novogratz, andEnrique Murciano joined the cast of the film, with Wu directing andNetflix distributing.[6] Anthony Bregman ofLikely Story, M. Blair Breard, and Wu served as producers, and Likely Story's Erica Matlin and Greg Zuk executive produced. In June 2019, it was announced thatCollin Chou had joined the cast.[7]
The film's name alludes tolove as discussed in Plato'sSymposium - which was cited in the opening sequence[8][9] and structured various visual motifs.[10]
Principal photography began on April 22, 2019, inNew York, and concluded on May 31, 2019.[11][12]
It was scheduled to have its world premiere at theTribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2020.[13][14] However, the festival was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[15] It was released on May 1, 2020.[16]
Wu did a test screening in a small conservative suburb to know how those morally aligned against the movie would feel about it. She was surprised that "[p]eople marked the film as ‘excellent’ and they said they're politically conservative". She gleaned that "there are a lot of closeted people who are actually starting to change their mind", and that Netflix could better reach them—even though a theatrical release would "be better for you as a filmmaker in terms ofcachet". When probed by a Netflix executive on her intentions for writing the film, she realized that "people are not going to go to the theater to watch this movie but in the privacy of their own home".[14]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 97% of 104 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "For viewers in search of an uncommonly smart, tender, and funny coming-of-age story,The Half of It has everything."[17]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18]
Decider said the plot is "an unbearably cute premise—a modern-dayCyrano de Bergerac with a queer twist—that seems so perfect and so obvious, it’s a wonder the movie hasn’t been made yet", and "an adorable teen film that will no doubt service an extremely underserved audience."[19]Rolling Stone praised the direction, stating that "the gentle touch Wu uses as a filmmaker, which only occasionally drifts into tidiness, does not dull the edges of her quietly revolutionary achievement in telling the story of a young lesbian immigrant’s journey to self-acceptance. In a movie brimming over with the pleasures of the unexpected, that’s the best part."[20]The New York Times noted that "Wu suffuses the film with a painfully mature understanding of the ache of longing for the impossible."[21]
Bitch magazine wrote that "while these teenage-focused [...] movies flirt with the idea of lesbian relationships, they quickly pivot before their casual interest can evolve into any fully realized romance", with the film's story seeming "to be more about the halfway happiness Ellie's given: maybe some acceptance, maybe a friend, maybe a first love. It's not the happy story we were sold via the trailer, and it feels like more promises that only halfway delivered."[22]
Leah Lewis toldTeen Vogue in an interview on 1 May 2020 that: "Most people think a love story has an equation, and that's usually boy meets girl, girl meets boy, or girl meets girl." However, in this case "[i]t's a self-love story because these characters don't really end up with each other, but at the very end, they end up withsomething. For me, that's even more valuable than just finding your other half; it's finding a part of yourself along the way. It is a love story, it's just not a 'romance' story."[23]
In a post dated May 22, 2020,A.O. Scott recommended it as his top film of 2020 so far.[24] Similarly, Educating Georgia's film expert Steph called it their film of 2020 in their retrospective of the year.[25]
Christy Lemire onRogerEbert.com found the film's "languid" pacing to be a double-edged sword.[26]
The Half of It won the top prize, the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, at the 2020Tribeca Film Festival.[27][28][29][30] The film was nominated forBest Screenplay (for Wu) at the36th Independent Spirit Awards,[31][32] and forOutstanding Film – Limited Release at the32nd GLAAD Media Awards.[33][34]
There's actually a lot of twinning. [...] and there's a lot of halves in this movie. [...] I'm trying to create a sense of this whole notion of looking for your other half [...]
"The Half of It" drags a bit in the middle, just as the tension should be mounting as to whether the characters' true identities and motives will be exposed. There's a languid quality to some of the pacing that perhaps fits with the sleepy,Pacific Northwest setting but weakens the film from an overall narrative perspective.