The Half of It: A must Watch!

‘The Half of It’ is one of the most astonishing and well made romantic comedies in the field of media and entertainment of all time. It is a Netflix original directed by Alice Wu who in a descriptive yet vaguely unique manner has portrayed her reflection towards apparently simple yet complex concepts like friendship, queer love and identity crisis which never fails to startle the audience in a thoughtful manner.

If you are someone who is absolutely fascinated by the concept of Love, then you should definitely consider giving it a watch since it covers this topic along with some other relevant yet rare topics in a very unique and unusual way that will blow your mind away with its story, craft and characterization.

The protagonist is an introverted and shy teenager named Ellie Chu who agrees to help her friend Paul to impress his crush Aster. It starts with Ellie sending letters and then messages to Aster on behalf of Paul without exposing her identity. Aster however finds these letters really impressive and both of them(Ellie and Aster) find a metaphysical and psychological connection between the two of them very soon.

Apparently this movie can be misinterpreted by anyone as a typical teen romance showing an archetypal love triangle. However, by the end of the movie it gets clear how it is so much more than just a typical romantic film and how it goes beyond the domain to show an unusual queer bonding between Aster and Ellie, along with a profound and pure friendship that Paul and Aster/Paul and Ellie share.

This film also puts forth a very essential subject of migration and the struggle that follows. Ellie and her father moved from China to U.S and since then they have had to face racial discrimination in several fields. It gets so ugly that her father, despite of having a PhD degree, fails to establish himself in the materialistic pseudo-intellectual society of U.S.

The way the complexities and layers of the societal as well as the psychological spheres have been portrayed through the film is exceptional and is very rare in the field of media. Unlike most of the contemporary romantic films, it does not follow a preconceived and archetypal style of events. The art of characterization has also been exemplified exclusively by the makers of the film. Some movie critics have also claimed that the story is partly autobiographical since the director seemed to have spoken about her own experiences from her college days while promoting the film in various places, which is another aspect that many people find absolutely different and interesting.

Among all the films that are being made lately, I found it to be one of the most relevant ones in terms of the issues it puts forth to the audience. The gradual development of the characters is elaborated beautifully. The duration is less than 2 hours which is perfect to draw attention of the audience and it never, at any point gets monotonous due to its rhythmic and gradual mode of cinematography. It might as well be considered to be a beautiful tribute to friendship and love which is very rare yet simple and beautiful at the same time. I am glad to have found it on Netflix and this Netflix original therefore would be highly recommended to each and every cinephile out there who tens to search for individualism and uniqueness in movies from time to time.

– Suvasree Bandyopadhyay