By Ayanna Smith

After finishing The Half of It, a coming-of-age film by Alice Wu starring Leah Lewis, I was left thinking about boldness. What exactly does it mean to be bold? Google defines it as “a willingness to take risks and act innovatively.” I associate boldness with taking a leap of faith. In The Half of It, Alice Wu shows us boldness is maybe more complex than we give it credit. It can be small and simple or it can be completely outrageous, but it’s always in service of one finding their authentic self.

A quick rundown. Our protagonist Ellie Cho (Leah Lewis) is a shy Asian-American teen who understands her place in the world. She is barely meant to be seen, but at the same time is responsible for keeping her and her father afloat. She has a knack for writing, which is why her classmate, Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) enlists her help with writing love letters to his crush, Aster (more on her later). Paul is a small-town jock. He’s goofy and good at football. The type that never gave much thought about life outside of their small hometown of Squahamish. And then there is Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), the girl next door that everyone (including Ellie!) has a crush on. On the outside, she seems like the perfect Christian girl, but she’s hiding her true self. She’s deeper than the average Squahamishite and likes to spend her time reading books rather than standing on the sideline cheering on her boyfriend.

Through the love letters and eventual text messages to Aster, Ellie develops a deep crush on her. And thus begins the twisted love triangle of misguided love. To be honest, the film gets messy and confirms that you should not have other people write your love letters for you. But what I loved about this film is that through strokes of boldness—sometimes made only semi-consciously by the characters—we abandon the archetypes created in the first part of the film

A glaring example is when Ellie is forced to play the guitar and sing an original song at the talent show after some of her everyday bullies break the piano she was originally going to play. This is the first time Ellie is seen as a person by most of her peers and is rewarded by a standing ovation. This gives Ellie more confidence, and moving forward, she is more willing to take risks.

It happens in subtle ways throughout the film as well. “Do you want to get out of here?” is all Aster has to ask Ellie for us to understand that Aster is desperately yearning for someone to show her true self to. Aster takes Ellie to her secret spot, a place only she knows, specifically a swimming hole in the forest—this is before Aster knows that it was Ellie she was communicating with the whole time, but there is a natural trust between them. 

This is the first time the audience can see Aster in her truth. Not through the love blindness of Ellie and Paul. Not through the Christain persona she puts up. But her. And who we meet is a confused girl. A girl so lost she doesn’t know whether or not she should say ‘yes’ if she is proposed to. This scene sticks with me because both Aster and Ellie ask each other questions that fundamentally change their outlooks on life. Aster questions her belief in God, while Ellie reveals the relief she would feel if she believed something. Ultimately, they are both lonely and want to be understood. They are truly having deep emotional conversations for a couple of high school seniors. I would also be extremely remorseful if I didn’t acknowledge that one of the reasons I love this interaction so much is because of the dreamy shots it gives us.

The boldest action we see on screen is when Ellie kisses Aster at the end of the film. It’s the first time we see Ellie act with so much confidence—no one would dare question her actions. It’s the agency that Ellie has been working toward gaining throughout the whole movie. Now she can go off to college with a sense of self. Aster, on the other hand, knows she’s not on the same page as Ellie, but at least she’s reading the same book. She now knows herself well enough to realize she has deeper reflection to do, which I don’t think could have been said even a few scenes earlier.

It’s hard to say The Half of It is a rom-com because there isn’t a definitive couple by the end of it. I’d argue it could be a buddy comedy. The platonic friendship between Ellie and Paul was touching and refreshing, and surprisingly, I was left teary-eyed when Paul sent Ellie off to college.

I think the film is firmly about self-love. Taking those bold, slightly off-kilter decisions that are going to force you to be more confident in yourself. So, if you want to make up new combinations of sausage flavors, do it. If you want to be an artist, be an artist. And if you want to escape your small town and go to the nearby liberal arts college, you should probably do that. At the end of the day, you owe it to yourself to follow your heart and discover who you are. 

In the last few minutes of the film, Ellie Cho says, “Love is messy and horrible and selfish….and bold.” Rather than using this quote to describe love for someone else, I applied it to the decision of committing to self-discovery. It will be messy and horrible at times, but be bold and a little selfish, and life will figure the rest out for you.

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