Movie Review: HALF NELSON
Half Nelson (2006)–****
If I were to review just the first 15 minutes of Half Nelson the review wouldn’t be pretty. The film looks like a low budget cliché, an art house rip-off of a film. The style doesn’t go away, but the beauty of Half Nelsonis the well-nurtured story envelopes the audience in the tumultuous emotional lives of the characters on screen.
Ryan Gosling stars as Dan, a history teacher at an inner-city middle school. He’s a fun teacher, a supportive coach and a drug addict. When Drey (Shareeka Epps) discovers her coach in a bathroom stall smoking crack, Dan comes face to face with his addiction.
Unlike most films, Dan’s lust for a fix doesn’t die when Drey makes the surprising discovery. He struggles to push his students beyond the boundaries set by the school curriculum, calling the students his only reason to stay focused. Drey, however, begins to involve herself in the world of drug dealing that landed her brother in jail. Dan’s salvation will come through Drey’s salvation, but a long road lies ahead.
It’s the moment when Drey finds Dan with crack pipe in hand that I began to give the film the slack it needed for the intimate, albeit tired handheld camera work to do its job. Mostly, though, it was Ryan Gosling’s moment in that scene, his look of fear, desperation and shame, that allowed for Dan to be dramatically humanized and thus immediately involving.
Gosling is an amazing actor who continues to improve on his previous work with every performance. From The Believer to The United States of Leland to Half Nelson Gosling has proved he can put his name alongside names like Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as a young man who is defining a generation of actors. That of course, makes Shareeka Epps work even harder.
Epps exposes the subtle humility and a potent conscience that is necessary to stand next to Gosling. Her coming-of-age story, combined with Gosling’s addiction drama make for a potent and engaging film.
By the end of the film, in fact, I was so involved and at times depressed I felt like crying. That’s not calling Half Nelson a tear-jerker. It’s far from it. Any tears would have been from watching Gosling carry so much trouble around with him where ever he goes.
The best scene in the film comes near the end, when Dan is having dinner with his family. His father is he’s an asshole and admits it. His mother, played by Deborah Rush, has more than just a motherly concern for here child, but carries it with as much poise as she can dig up. His brother, apparently not a fuck-up, is in a relationship that’s in tact. That makes him one better than Dan, who’s failed relationship with his ex-girlfriend who cleaned up her act only drives Dan deeper into his addiction. Dan watches, maybe guiltily, this world that isn’t his but he is for a few moments a part of.
The ending isn’t happy. Knowing Dan as much as I do by the end of the film, I’d be hard pressed to even call it hopeful. It is, however, appropriate. This film isn’t Dead Poet’s Society or Mr. Holland’s Opus, but this turbulent entry into the student-teacher sub genre shouldn’t be. It’s smarter and more powerful than those “inspirational” movies. That’s what makes Half Nelson one of the year’s best films.
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