Stars: 3.75/5
Who knew a love parallelogram wouldn’t be so bad?
In a sea of mediocre teen rom-coms, “The Half of It” is quaint, refreshing and different. Meet Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), daughter of a Chinese immigrant, a stellar musician, writer, businesswoman and introvert.
Ellie’s savvy business skills for writing her classmates’ essays expand into writing love letters for Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), the school’s clueless tight end. Paul’s love letters are addressed to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), a popular girl who has no interest in her social status.
“The Half of It” is smart in a charming way. The movie is down-to-earth compared to Netflix’s selection of teen rom-coms such as “The Kissing Booth” and “After.” There isn’t overtly annoying editing and sound effects to appeal to tweens. The movie depicts having a crush as authentically as possible.
Ellie and Aster’s relationship is a slow, slow burn. While sticking with her obnoxious boyfriend, Trig (Wolfgang Novogratz), whose family also owns half of their small town, Aster finds a part of herself when she’s interacting with Ellie (or Paul).
Paul and Ellie’s friendship blooms. I loved how Paul befriends her and stands up for Ellie. Unlike other teen dramas, Ellie isn’t shifted into ultimate popularity. The concept of popularity is almost non-existent in the movie but it’s still there.
“The Half of It” uses classic teen movie tropes and pokes fun at them. Despite being a jack of all trades, Ellie is bullied and ridiculed by her fellow peers. Aster is popular but disregards it. Trig is a popular guy who is well aware of it.
Next, the town of Squahamish, Washington accurately depicts small-town Americana. Everyone knows everyone. There are one or two families who own most of the town or have more power than needed. The gossip, young marriage and the yearning some have to leave.
Where “The Half of It” falls flat is the dragged out middle and rushed end. It began out strong with Ellie narrating and dropping in hints of philosophy. Somewhere around the midway mark, it draws out and characters’ connections with one another stalls.
I also don’t understand how Paul was going after Aster when she was apparently dating Trig and preparing for Trig’s marriage proposal. I also don’t understand how prominent the teasing of Ellie was when she writes for (what it seems) half of her senior class. Shouldn’t some of them have her back at least? I guess their association was truly transactional.
Also, that final church scene shouldn’t have been in the movie. It was a little bit too cringe for my liking. I honestly feel like Trig’s existence doesn’t do much for the movie. He’s there, but Aster and his relationship isn’t polarizing. He’s a flat, secondary character.
Most of the movie also has its boring spots with some scenes not adding up. Ellie and Aster’s relationship is spotty and isn’t fleshed out enough. The lake scene was golden. I wish the girls had more scenes together because the way Ellie looks at Aster in the hallway is so adorable. The final scene between Aster and Ellie was sad and soothing to watch.
Paul and Ellie’s final moment together before she leaves for college is the most touching scene. Their friendship made the movie. He chases after the train and if he could, he probably would have ran forever until she reached Iowa. 
“The Half of It” reached its potential, but boredom sadly crawled in between its more polarizing scenes. The movie is different because there isn’t a formulaic approach to the love story and everyone at the end learns or gets something. It’s a sensible romance movie that is great to watch around Valentine’s Day.