Sparks fly between a jock and a shy nerd in a new trailer for “The Half of It.” We’ve seen this story hundreds of times, but never quite like this. Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer, “Sacred Lies”) and Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis, “Nancy Drew”) seem to be platonic soulmates. They’re both lovelorn, but don’t have romantic feelings for one another. The highschoolers are both crushing on the same girl.
“The good thing about being different in a town like this is that no one expects you to be like them,” says Ellie. The Chinese-American straight-A student runs a business ghostwriting her classmates’ essays to help her father pay their bills and thought she’d “never meet anyone else” to relate to. When Paul enlists her services, she assumes it’s for a paper, but he’s actually hoping she can help him “sound smart” in a love letter he’s planning to send to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire, “Truth or Dare”).
Despite living very different lives on the surface, in Paul, Ellie feels that she’s finally met someone her age who really understands her. But Paul doesn’t pick up on Ellie’s feelings for Alexis — until she starts waxing poetic about “how her eyes look right into yours” and ” how you could live in an ocean of her thoughts.” “It would suck to have to pretend to be not you your whole life,” Paul tells his new BFF.
Written and directed by Alice Wu (“Saving Face”), “The Half of It” drops on Netflix May 1.
