A mostly formulaic rom com is given a jolt of originality by recasting the Cyrano in this retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac story as a young Chinese-American woman awakening to the fact that she is a lesbian.

This movie is likable and watchable, if not addictively so. Much of it is breezy, while little of it is confidently funny. Some of the jokes land, some don't. But's it's sweet and positive in its messaging, and sweetness and positivity are welcome qualities in entertainment these days, when both are in short supply pretty much everywhere else.

Exactly the kind of made-for-Netflix movie you would expect it to be.

Grade: B

High schooler Ellie Chu is a loner in the mostly white Squamish. She is the Chinese girl who gets derisively called Chu-Chu. She and her father run the local train stop. Her father is still depressed from the lost of her mother. She sells English papers to her classmates and has a crush on popular girl Aster Flores who is dating arrogant jock Trig Carson. One day, clueless jock Paul Munsky asks for help to write a love letter to Aster. She needs $50 to keep the lights on at home and agrees to write one letter.

It's Cyrano de Bergerac with a gay twist. It is sincerely sweet and a terrific addition to the Netflix YA catalogue. All three leads are compelling and nice. One roots for these characters. I would push them together faster. First I would start the Ellie-Paul friendship sooner. I do have an issue with the Paul-Aster dates. She is cheating on Trig in a small town and she can't do it in public. The better way to do it is to make Ellie and Paul friends sooner. Aster would see it and use Ellie as a go-between. The side benefit is more sweet awkwardness between Ellie and Aster like the hot spring scene. Otherwise, the dates are good but they wouldn't actually happen. In the end, this could be seen as overly sweet but there is enough sincerity for the most cynical amongst us.

I have to say that as teen angst/romance films go, this is certainly a lot better than average. "Ellie" (Leah Lewis) is an academic, but shy girl who lives with her widower Dad. When they are faced with having their electricity cut off, she agrees to get paid $50 to write a letter from her friend "Paul" (Daniel Diemer) - a rather naive, awkward lad - to the gorgeous and popular "Aster" (Alexis Lemire) who in turn is dating school beefcake "Trig" (Wolgang Novogratz). Naturally, one letter leads to another and before long all four are caught up in a rather unique variation of a love triangle - one that questions lots of their assumptions about themselves and each other. The performances are enthusiastic and adequate, except maybe for Collin Chou - her dad - who is better, and who also turns out to be a mean shot with a kitchen hose. The narrative is a little annoying, and the writing just a bit too prosaic, but it is a far more considered piece of cinema than many in this genre and it spends much less time worrying about stereotypes and ticking boxes too.