The Half of It is alive to more than romance
BECAUSE HUMANS SPEND SO MUCH ENERGY IN PURSUIT OF romance, we sometimes forget that platonic relationships can be even more complicated—and generally last longer too. That’s just one of the ideas thrumming beneath the surface of writer-director Alice Wu’s The Half of It, a prickly-tender film about teenage friendship, first love and all the blurry gradations in between. It’s sweet and funny, but also, in places, as raw as a scraped knee.
Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a straight-A student living in a dull town in the Pacific Northwest. She has a great, dry wit, but she doesn’t really have any friends, maybe because she’s managing so much anxiety at home: her father (Collin Chou) earned an advanced engineering degree and as a way of improving his English, though it’s clear they simply give him solace.
