Pride Month 2020: Ellie Chu in 'The Half of It' brilliantly questions sexuality, minus the stereotypes
When we first meet Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) in the Netflix movie 'The Half of It', she is writing papers and doing homework for her peers for $20 in the very small, strongly religious town of Squahamish she calls home. She cycles across the town from one place to another usually hustling. Ellie also has pretty much taken over the responsibilities at home - from calling the electricity company for an extension on a bill to doing most of her father's work.
However, in one instance Ellie is not due for a usual paper on Plato. Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) wants to write to the beautiful, quiet, mystical young Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), a love letter. Since he struggles with writing, he enlists Ellie's help to convey his feelings to Aster. At first, Ellie refuses to do this - the tension visible in her eyes that she can't write this letter because it won't be coming directly from Paul and it beats the point if he cannot express himself.
But the real reason that Ellie doesn't want to write the letter is that she is not completely at settled in her sexuality, yet. For Pride Month 2020, MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) is bringing characters to the forefront who pushed the discussion around LGBTQ issues forward. In the immensely pleasing 'The Half of It' that tells the story about coming to terms with one's true self, Ellie finds herself on a journey that she never expected to go on while writing romantic love letters for someone else.
The movie never claimed that Ellie was unaware of her attraction towards girls. Towards the beginning of the movie, a good deal of time is spent in establishing just that. What the movie shows with intensive care is her accepting and not being in the shadows about it. It is when writing those letters for Paul that she can put into words her feelings and her thoughts into concise words - an exercise she never attempted., that she realizes she can be herself.
And even though the end was not what you'd have hoped for - despite the disclaimer provided in the beginning - one cannot help but marvel as how far Ellie has come and how her (mostly unidentified) dalliance with Aster propels her towards her future.
The Netflix movie goes beyond that to becoming a story about a friendship between Paul and Ellie. The two have barely spoken at school, but following Paul's paid gig, the two quickly strike a friendship that goes beyond Aster as they talk about dreams, ambitions and themselves. As their friendship becomes more and more intense, Paul finds himself attracted to her only to make the discovery about Ellie.
Friendships between LGBT+ people and straight people often are reduced to a box called the ‘gay best friend’. Even in that popular portrayal on media involves usually a white, cis, gay man who helps or supplements the romance of the straight white female protagonist. While representation is good, there is so much more to queer people and the relationships they form vis-a-vis with straight people than what we are being shown in our favorite films. But this is where 'The Half Of It' stands out.
Ellie and Paul’s friendship takes center stage. We watch as they grow together overcoming the deep-rooted evangelical homophobia within their town. The movie features a particularly important scene that argues the validity of feelings over religion and God. This could easily be deemed a scene where Ellie comes out - in front of an entire church! Via Ellie, the coming of age story tells the heartwarming tale of a young girl who gains a foothold on her feelings and a promising friendship at the end of it.
'The Half of It' is currently streaming on Netflix.
