The Half of It is a 2020 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Alice Wu. It stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire, with Enrique Murciano, Wolfgang Novogratz, Catherine Curtin, Becky Ann Baker, and Collin Chou in supporting roles. Teenager Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock while falling for his crush. Netflix released the film on May 1, 2020, to positive reviews. The film received the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.

The film is a loose modern retelling of the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac.

Plot

Friendless student Ellie Chu lives in the remote town of Squahamish, where she makes extra money writing homework papers for her fellow students. She lives with her widower father and performs most of his duties as station master and signalman. She is approached by Paul Munsky, an inarticulate football player, to write a love letter to Aster Flores, a girl at their school. Ellie initially refuses, but accepts the work after learning that her home's electricity will be shut off if they fail to make a minimum payment. Aster is dating Trig, a boy from a wealthy family, and Ellie begins a heartfelt correspondence with Aster through letters and text messages. The two connect over their shared interests in literature and art, though Aster believes she is communicating with Paul. Ellie's English teacher encourages her to apply to Grinnell College, but Ellie plans to stay in Squahamish, despite being unhappy there, because she does not want to leave her father.

Ellie sets up Paul on a date with Aster, but it goes badly because Paul is unable to converse with her like Ellie can. Ellie regards this as the end of their attempts, but after Paul defends her from bullies, she agrees to teach him about art and literature. Ellie and Paul begin to bond as they open up about their family struggles. Paul's second date with Aster goes as badly as the first, but Ellie saves the evening by texting Aster while pretending to be Paul. Paul abruptly confesses his romantic interest in Aster and later tells Ellie that he kissed her. Paul brings Ellie to a party and takes her to his home after she becomes intoxicated, where he sees letters in her bag addressed to food critics, presumably about his sausage creations.

Aster invites Ellie to spend the day together. She takes her to a hidden hot spring where they swim and share an intimate conversation. Aster reveals that Trig intends to marry her, while Ellie reveals that she does not believe in God and talks about her deceased mother. Meanwhile, at Ellie's house, Paul and her father bond as they make sausages. Later, Ellie watches from her window as Paul and Aster kiss, and she decides to apply to Grinnell. After a game, mistakenly believing that she loves him, and having developed feelings for her, Paul attempts to kiss Ellie, but she rejects him. Aster sees them and walks away angrily. Paul realizes that Ellie loves Aster and, due to his religious upbringing, tells Ellie that it is a sin. When Paul delivers sausage to Ellie's father, Ellie's father and Paul have a conversation about love wherein Ellie's father asks Paul if he has ever loved someone so much, that he did not want to change anything about them. Trig proposes to Aster at a church service, but Ellie and Paul publicly interrupt the moment by sharing the true meaning of "love" using Ellie's wording from a previous letter. Aster realizes that Ellie wrote the letters and text messages pretending to be Paul; she slaps Paul and storms out.

Before leaving for Grinnell, Ellie apologizes to Aster for deceiving her. Aster admits that she may have had feelings for Ellie and that she is applying to art school. Ellie kisses Aster and tells her that she will see her in a couple of years. Paul sees Ellie off at the train platform and tells her that his sausages have received good reviews, and that he will keep visiting her father. As in Ek Villain, the film they watched together, Paul runs beside the train as it leaves. Ellie laughs at his silliness, then observes the passengers around her as she goes off to start a new journey in her life.

Cast
 Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, a shy, introverted, Chinese-American straight-A student
 Daniel Diemer as Paul Munsky, a school jock whom Ellie helps out by writing love letters
 Alexxis Lemire as Aster Flores, the daughter of a local deacon
 Collin Chou as Edwin Chu, Ellie's father
 Wolfgang Novogratz as Trig Carson, Aster's boyfriend
 Becky Ann Baker as Mrs. Geselschap
 Catherine Curtin as Colleen Munsky, Paul's mother
 Enrique Murciano as Deacon Flores, Aster's father

Production
In April 2019, it was announced Leah Lewis, Alexxis Lemire, Daniel Diemer, Becky Ann Baker, Catherine Curtin, Wolfgang Novogratz, and Enrique Murciano had joined the cast of the film, with Alice Wu directing from a screenplay she wrote. Wu and Anthony Bregman served as producers on the film, with Netflix distributing. In June 2019, it was announced that Collin Chou joined the cast.

Filming
Principal photography began on April 22, 2019, in New York and concluded on May 31, 2019.

Release
It was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2020. However, the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on May 1, 2020.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of  based on  reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "For viewers in search of an uncommonly smart, tender, and funny coming-of-age story, The Half of It has everything." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Decider said the plot is  "an unbearably cute premise—a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac with a queer twist—that seems so perfect and so obvious, it’s a wonder the movie hasn’t been made yet", and "an adorable teen film that will no doubt service an extremely underserved audience." Rolling Stone praised the direction, stating that "the gentle touch Wu uses as a filmmaker, which only occasionally drifts into tidiness, does not dull the edges of her quietly revolutionary achievement in telling the story of a young lesbian immigrant’s journey to self-acceptance. In a movie brimming over with the pleasures of the unexpected, that’s the best part." The New York Times noted that "Wu suffuses the film with a painfully mature understanding of the ache of longing for the impossible."

Bitch magazine wrote that "while these teenage-focused...movies flirt with the idea of lesbian relationships, they quickly pivot before their casual interest can evolve into any fully realized romance", with the film's story seeming "to be more about the halfway happiness Ellie's given: maybe some acceptance, maybe a friend, maybe a first love. It's not the happy story we were sold via the trailer, and it feels like more promises that only halfway delivered."

Leah Lewis (the actress who portrayed Ellie Chu) told Teen Vogue in an interview on 1 May 2020 that: "Most people think a love story has an equation, and that's usually boy meets girl, girl meets boy, or girl meets girl." However, in this case "[i]t's a self-love story because these characters don't really end up with each other, but at the very end, they end up with something. For me, that's even more valuable than just finding your other half; it's finding a part of yourself along the way. It is a love story, it's just not a 'romance' story."

In a post dated May 22, 2020, A.O. Scott recommended it as his top film of 2020 so far. Similarly, Educating Georgia's film expert Steph called it their film of 2020 in their retrospective of the year.

Accolades
The film received the top award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. It was also nominated for the 2021 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film (Limited Release).

References

External links
 
 

2020 films
2020 comedy-drama films
2020 independent films
2020 LGBT-related films
2020s American films
2020s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
2020s English-language films
2020s high school films
American coming-of-age comedy-drama films
American high school films
American teen comedy-drama films
American teen LGBT-related films
English-language Netflix original films
LGBT-related films about Chinese Americans
Films about interracial romance
Films based on Cyrano de Bergerac (play)
Films scored by Anton Sanko
Films shot in New York (state)
Lesbian-related films
LGBT-related comedy-drama films
LGBT-related coming-of-age films
《반쪽의 이야기》()는 2020년 공개된 미국의 성장 드라마 영화로, 《세이빙 페이스》의 감독 앨리스 우의 차기작이다. 에드몽 로스탕의 희곡 《시라노 드 베르주라크》를 현대적으로 재해석해 제작되었다. 리아 루이스, 대니얼 디머, 알렉시스 러미어, 콜린 쩌우가 출연한다. 사랑을 모르는 모범생 엘리가 말주변 없는 남학생 폴의 연애편지를 대신 써주게 되며 이어지는 이야기이다. 2020년 5월 1일 넷플릭스에서 공개되었다.

줄거리 
황량한 시골 동네 스쿼헤이미시에 사는 내성적인 모범생 엘리 추. 성적은 좋지만 친구도 없고, 실직자인 아버지와 가난한 집안사정 때문에 명문대 진학은 포기하고 있다. 용돈벌이를 위해 다른 학생들의 대리 숙제를 해주던 그녀에게, 미식축구 특기생인 폴이 편지 대필 의뢰를 해온다. 폴은 학교에서 가장 예쁜 애스터라는 소녀를 짝사랑하고 있었으나, 원체 말주변도 없고 글도 못 쓰는지라 대신 엘리에게 연애편지를 써달라는 것이었다. 그런 사랑을 이해하지 못하는 엘리는 처음에는 질색을 했지만, 결국 자금난 때문에 50달러를 받고 대필을 해주기로 한다.

엘리는 처음에 빔 벤더스를 인용해서 애스터에게 줄 편지를 쓴다. 그리고 놀랍게도 애스터가 관심을 보이는 내용의 답장을 해온다. 애스터는 가벼운 아이들과 어울리는 평소 모습과는 달리 진지하고 철학적인 고민을 품고 있는 아이였다. 엘리는 폴을 가장해 답장을 계속 써나가면서 애스터와 조금씩 교감을 나누고, 그녀에 대해 알아가게 된다. 그리고 그러면서 폴과도 친밀해진다. 난생 처음으로 자신을 이해해주는 친구들을 만난 엘리는 혼란스러워 한다. 우려와는 달리 폴은 애스터와 데이트를 잘 해내고 키스까지 하게 된다.

지역 성당에서 연주회가 열려 반주자로 일하던 엘리도 나가서 연주를 하게 된다. 그러나 악동들의 장난 때문에 공연 중 피아노가 고장나서 엘리는 연주를 망치고 망신을 당할 위기에 놓인다. 그때 지켜보던 폴이 엘리가 평소에 연주하던 기타를 들고 와 엘리에게 넘겨주고 엘리는 피아노 대신 노래를 부르며 기타를 연주한다. 엘리의 노래는 의외의 호응을 이끌어낸다. 그날 밤 뒤풀이 파티에서 엘리는 큰 관심의 대상이 된다. 엘리가 술에 취해 곯아 떨어지자 폴이 자기 집으로 데려가서 재운다.

엘리가 잠에서 깨보니 폴은 나가 있었고, 애스터가 폴네 집에 놀러왔다가 폴의 방에서 자는 엘리를 보고 놀란다. 당황한 엘리는 오해하지 말라고 한다. 애스터는 그런 엘리를 데리고 마을을 나가, 자신만 아는 비밀 노천온천에 데려가 같이 멱을 감는다. 애스터는 폴을 좋게 보고 있지만, 집에서 정해준 상대인 트리그와 결혼하기로 되어 있었다. 한편 폴은 애스터가 아닌 엘리에게 조금씩 마음이 가게 되자, 어느 날 밤 엘리에게 키스를 시도하다 이 장면을 애스터에게 들키게 되고 애스터는 떠나가 버린다. 그리고 애스터를 지켜보는 엘리의 눈빛에서 엘리가 애스터에게 사랑을 느끼고 있음을 눈치채게 된다.

며칠 후 모두가 참석한 성당 미사 때, 트리그가 일어서서 애스터에게 공개적으로 구혼한다. 애스터가 선뜻 대답을 하지 못하는데, 엘리가 불쑥 일어서서 애스터에게 자신의 사랑을 선택하라고 외친다. 엘리의 사랑 철학을 들은 애스터는 이제까지 자신과 연애편지와 문자메시지로 대화한 사람이 폴이 아닌 엘리임을 알게 되고 성당을 박차고 나가버린다. 이후 엘리는 직접 애스터를 찾아가서 화해를 하고, 정식으로 구애한다. 그리고 아버지의 직장 문제가 해결되어 염원하던 그리넬 칼리지에 가게 되었음을 밝히며, 4년 후에 애스터를 만나러 돌아오겠다고 한다. 엘리가 드디어 마을을 떠나는 날, 사업에 성공한 폴이 엘리를 배웅한다.

출연진 
 리아 루이스 - 엘리 추
 대니얼 디머 - 폴 먼스키
 알렉시스 러미어 - 애스터 플로레스
 캐서린 커틴 - 콜린 먼스키
 콜린 쩌우 - 에드윈 추
 엔리케 무르시아노 - 디컨 플로레스
 볼프강 노보그라츠 - 트리그 카슨
 베니 앤 베이커 - 게젤샤프 선생
 게이비 새멀스 - 앰버
 메건 스티어 - 쿼디
 헤일리 머피 - 솔랜지
 빌리 토마스 마이어트 - 토미 먼스키
 맷 마인슨 - 빌 먼스키
 딘 티어니 - 그렉 먼스키
 패트릭 T. 존슨 - 톰 카슨

수상 목록 
 제19회 트라이베카 필름 페스티벌 (2020년) 미국장편경쟁

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2020년 영화
영어 영화 작품
미국의 성장 영화
미국의 성소수자 영화
미국의 십대 드라마 영화
미국의 십대 로맨스 영화
미국의 십대 코미디 영화
미국의 로맨틱 코미디 영화
성소수자 드라마 영화
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레즈비언 영화
아시아계 미국인 영화
다른 인종간의 사랑을 다룬 영화
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2020년 성소수자 영화
시라노 드 베르주라크 (희곡)를 바탕으로 한 영화