The Half of It
Cyrano de Bergerac, rewritten so the letter-writer is a queer Chinese-American girl.
A teen romance brave enough not to end in the couple you expect.
- 2020
- 104 min
- 97% on Rotten Tomatoes
- 6.9 on IMDb
- #comedy
- #coming-of-age
- #romance
Our take
Ellie writes essays for cash in a small town, gets hired by a sweet, inarticulate jock to write love letters to a girl, and falls for the girl herself. Alice Wu builds it around three-way friendship rather than a love triangle, which is the smartest decision in the film.
It is also unusually good on being the only Asian family in a white town and on a father who has given up on his own life. The ending refuses the pairing the genre demands and is much better for it — Ellie gets to leave, and that is the win.
Where to watch The Half of It
Stream
Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Streaming availability data provided by JustWatch. Availability changes often and is checked daily — confirm on the provider before paying for anything.
Scores
Ours
- Jibbi Score — 4 out of 5 rainbows. A teen romance brave enough not to end in the couple you expect.
Everyone else’s
- Rotten Tomatoes — 97%, via OMDb.
- IMDb — 6.9 out of 10 from 46,874 votes, via OMDb.
- Metacritic — 74 out of 100, via OMDb.
- TMDB — 7.1 out of 10 from 1,610 votes, refreshed daily.
The plot, officially
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.
Synopsis and poster via TMDB.