The Half of It: A Sweet Romantic Comedy With A Twist (Free on Netflix)

Director/Writer Alice Wu has crafted a partly-autobiographical film which is a creative spin-off of the classic "Cyrano de Bergerac." Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a very smart Chinese-American immigrant.  Her widowed father Edwin (Collin Chou) makes very little money as a railroad station engineer in a small town in Washington state.  Although he has a Ph.D., his poor English has kept him from advancing professionally.  Ellie supplements their meager income by writing essays for cash for students in her high school.  She is a senior and plans to go to the local college, even though she is a straight-A student and could go to much better ones further away.  She feels trapped due to loyalty to her father, who would then be all alone. Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) is a sweet guy who is a backup tight-end on a terrible football team.  He has fallen in love with the very pretty  Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), who has recently moved from Sacramento.  He isn't good with words, so he asks Ellie to write one letter to Aster for him.  Ellie has no friends and is essentially invisible and Paul soon becomes her first friend.  A texting relationship also develops between Aster and Elli, who is pretending to be Paul.  I can't say any more about the plot without spoiling the movie, but it's a touching story that has considerable humor and depth.  The ensemble cast is terrific, too.  If you see "The Half of It" you'll watch the "whole" film!