Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Shy, straight-A student Ellie is hired by sweet but inarticulate jock Paul, who needs help wooing the most popular girl in school. But their new and unlikely friendship gets tricky when Ellie discovers she has feelings for the same girl.
The Half of It earns its distinctiveness through its rare combination of a Chinese-American lesbian protagonist in a small-town setting, literary sensibility (referencing Cyrano de Bergerac while subverting it), and an unusually quiet, introspective tone for a teen romcom. Alice Wu's voice is singular — the film resists easy resolution and prioritizes emotional honesty over genre convention. Acting is solid throughout, particularly Leah Lewis, though not transcendent. Cinematography is competent and evocative of the Pacific Northwest small town but not visually ambitious. The plot structure is familiar (Cyrano riff) but the execution elevates it. The ending is poignant and thematically coherent but deliberately restrained, which may feel unresolved to some viewers.