The Half of It (2020)
Genre: Romance / Comedy
Duration: 104 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Alice Wu
Stars: Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer and Alexxis Lemire
IMDb score:
6,9 (47.152)
Releasedate: 1 May 2020
The Half of It plot
"A different kind of love story."
The shy introverted Ellie is a student with Chinese roots. When she learns that the charming Paul is in love with Aster, she decides to help him win her heart. However, Paul is unaware of Ellie's own feelings for the girl.
Actors and actresses
Ellie Chu
Paul Munsky
Aster Flores
Deacon Flores
Trig Carson
Colleen Munsky
Mrs. Geselschap
Edwin Chu
Father Shanley
Senior Guy (In Hallway)
Reviews & comments
scorsese
-
- 13272 messages
- 11155 votes
Good film in which a girl helps a boy write love letters. A modern variation on Cyrano de Bergerac. Not a standard high school movie, the film tends more towards a romantic drama. A pleasant, quiet tempo. Charming characters and the sometimes somewhat awkward, young cast gives good shape to this.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Collins
-
- 7369 messages
- 4366 votes
A Netflix production about the intelligent, sensitive and inconspicuous Ellie who has the gift of the written word and uses that gift to write love letters for the less gifted Paul in order to win the heart of the beautiful Aster.
This is the not very original plot that is indeed strongly reminiscent of Cyrano de Bergerac. Of course, the setting is different and current themes are discussed that you do not encounter in Cyrano. Yet the basis is very much the same and the course of the story is therefore not very surprising. Well, the final scenes are different, but they are so in line with expectations that there are no real surprises there either.
Director Alice Wu is of Taiwanese descent and openly lesbian. She uses these characteristics in the film to make her Cyrano a character that corresponds to her own world. The man with the long nose becomes a young lesbian girl with an Asian background. Ellie is an interesting character. Unlike the characters Paul and Aster, who more or less remain stuck in their stereotypical approach, Ellie at least undergoes some kind of development.
Leah Lewis, who plays Ellie, also has the talent to provide the film with some sparkle with tragicomic flair. I actually found the interactions between the characters rather tame and not very interesting. The emotion certainly does not jump out.
The film is not bad, but it stays within a safe framework and does not show any daring deviations that really surprise or really excite. No positive outliers. No negative ones. It is a film that, in my opinion, meanders along too flatly, too resignedly and too calmly. Not a boring film. Not that. But also not a film that leaves a particularly big impression.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Shadowed
-
- 11421 messages
- 6719 votes
Well-acted romantic drama with sympathetic characters, who unfortunately perform a number of incomprehensible actions. The Half of It leans a bit too much on these moments, which causes the viewer some frustration due to the slow pace. Director Alice Wu also directs too messily and skips almost the entire introduction. You end up more or less directly in a story that seems to be halfway through, to which the open ending provides support in a negative sense. The ending is not entirely satisfactory and a lot of clichés are pulled out of the closet, but the characters at least feel human and the film builds on that excellently.
Translated from Dutch · View originalLatest News
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