Half Nelson
Written by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Directed by Ryan Fleck
ThinkFilm
2006
Rating:


Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is the kind of teacher who believes in the spirit of No Child Left Behind, even if the administration that implemented it does not. Dan teaches with passion, veering from the lesson plan to frame his class with the Marxist point of view that historical events are due to a conflict of social forces. Dan's class contracts his fervor, making it easy for students like Drey (Shareeka Epps) to view him heroically and turn him into the father figure she's missing at home.

Of course, like all heroes, Dan isn't the man Drey wishes him to be, and her idealism is sobered when she discovers Dan smoking crack cocaine in a bathroom stall.

"Half Nelson" is no "Dead Poets Society," no sentimental view of teachers' capacity to change the world. Director Ryan Fleck, who co-wrote the script with Anna Boden, infuses his take on the teacher movie with the spirit of John Cassavetes. In "Half Nelson," Dan's romantic notions of real social change were destroyed long ago, causing Dan to leave himself behind so that he has no real chance of rescuing his Brooklyn students.

Drey's discovery of Dan's drug addiction forces the pair to form a sturdier student-teacher bond, with Dan taking a stronger interest in Drey's personal life and Drey fearing Dan will be lost to drugs like her imprisoned brother. For his part, Dan fights hard to keep Drey from succumbing to his fate and that of her brother, and he becomes protective when drug dealer Frank (Anthony Mackie) offers to take Drey under his wing. When Frank calls Dan out for his hypocrisy, Dan is self-aware enough to admit he doesn't really know what's best for Drey.

Gosling's ferocious performance is averse to actorly depictions of drug use and more invested in the sensitively rendered conflict of Dan's hypocrisy. With "The Believer," "The Slaughter Rule" and even "The Notebook," Gosling has since been established as one of his generation's greatest actors, so it's Epps who's the real revelation. Epps endows Drey with optimistically tinged pragmatism so that when Dan fails her, the real tragedy is in Drey's loss of hope.

"Half Nelson" attains a cautious beauty because Dan and Drey are unwilling to give up on each other; in their struggle, they make sure no one gets left behind.

Posted Saturday, January 20, 2007

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