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| Half Nelson |
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| Half Nelson |
Sometimes people are attracted to each other because of their differences. When there's a nebulous attraction between a teacher and a young teenage child--as in the superb Half Nelson--the relationship has all the makings of confused disaster. Though there are a few uncomfortable moments when it's not obvious whether Dan (Ryan Gosling) and Drey (Shareeka Epps) might cross the line, the attraction between the pair is culled less from sexual tension than desperation. Dan is an idealistic history teacher in an inner-city school. Drey is one of his brightest students. For both, drugs represent something that may help them escape their worlds. He takes drugs to dull his dissatisfaction with himself. She views drugs as a possible way to better her life, even though she knows her brother's foray into that trade landed him in jail. Bleakly filmed and well told, Half Nelson soars because of the immaculate acting by Gosling and Epps. With his impish smile, Gosling provides a character that is at once disarming, alluring, and pitiful. As the young girl who's already seen too much hardship in her life, Epps plays her part with just the right amount of hardened raw emotion. While the ambiguous ending may not please fans weaned on happy Hollywood finales, it's a fitting and believable close to a thought-provoking film. --Jae-Ha Kim Stills from Half Nelson (click for larger image)
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Average Rating:
 Rating:  - TediousRyan Gosling's a great actor who can tackle the quirky and dark stuff ... but after about five minutes of pouty/moody, self-defeating, drug-addled pointlessness and pseudo ghetto talk from a "teacher" who's planted himself in exactly the wrong place, this flick grows most annoying. When he starts with the "holla back" and such to his young charges, it's galling. This main character seeks the lowest (un)common denominator and wallows in it. Surely, it will appeal to all those types who revel in uninformed fantasies of "conquering" inner-city demons and performing some misguided sense of social charity. The teachers I know in the situations Mr. Gosling portrays can't wait to get the hell out of such schools; for in the real world, as Hollywood repeatedly fails to understand and portray, there's no silver lining there, no appreciation nor reward for such "chivalry." Rating: - Frailty & Magnificence"Half Nelson" is not a pleasant film. It spoke to me of the imperfection of all human beings, no matter what color, gender or age. We see the young teacher Dan Dunne who is handsome and a dedicated teacher in a poor school. However, his personal life has fallen apart with his drug use. In the hands of another actor, the film would have been harder to watch. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Actor for the film and won the honor for his Breakthrough Performance from the National Board of Review. He is befriended by his student Drey who seems to idolize her teacher, but then finds him smoking crack cocaine. Drey is played by Shareeka Epps who was also in the film short. She won Best Supporting Actress awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Society. It is a sensitive portrayal. Then Drey starts dealing; and we see her imperfection. Tina Holmes plays Rachel in the film and finds it hard to be with Dan. We see Dan's family, Drey's family, and many of the students in the school. Each is a product of their circumstances and their choices. I thought the film ended on a positive note as Dunne shaves his scraggly beard. Perhaps he has hit bottom and will start to pull himself together. The film was named Best Picture by the American Film Institute. It is difficult to watch in spots. It speaks to the frailty and magnificence that lie side by side in each of us. Enjoy! Rating:  - The Struggle Between Opposing Forces"Half Nelson" isn't one of those "inspirational teacher/mentor" movies -- at least not in any generic or conventional sense. There's no triumph, no breakthrough, no by-the-numbers victory in test scores or on the basketball court. This movie isn't about those things, but is concerned with an even greater achievement that is generally unacknowledged: how people -- flawed, miserable, frustrated people -- go to work every day and find a way to care about something beyond themselves, despite themselves." Roger Ebert We are all looking for mentors. And, when we think of mentors, we think of the 'good guys'. Dan Dunne is not one of the proverbial good guys. He is a man, a teacher in an inner city school and one of the best, but he also has flaws. Dan smokes crack, because of or in spite of his job. He makes it to work every day, bleary eyed and thin, but he gives his best to his kids. Drey is one of his students. She is the intelligent one, the one that should be saved. They both understand the allure of drugs- one to help them make it through the day and the other to help her make it through life. Ryan Gosling has become Dan, bleak and bright and confused and worn out. Shareeka Epps, as Drey gives a subtle but brilliant performance. She has seen the results of drugs in her life. She runs drugs for her family friend but she hates it. She makes money and how she is going to get out of this mess, anyway. Drey and Dan forage a relationship after she finds him half conscious ... Read More Rating:  - Mr. Chips ... with Plenty of CokeInner city teacher uses creative methods to engage his students on issues of history and social change, all the while nursing a hefty drug habit. In the process, he strikes up a friendship with Drey, a young black girl who is one of his students. She carries with her the "secret" of his drug use. "Half Nelson" is a gritty movie, bordering at times on a documentary. Ryan Gosling gives a superb performance of the drugged out teacher. Tidy resolutions elude the movie in this slightly depressing but powerful tale. Rating: - Powerful Performances in One Powerhouse Social DramaThe closer you pay attention to HALF NELSON the more you realize how amazingly audacious and profoundly frightening this movie is. One of the driving political notions of the 1960s was the idea that white liberals could and should attempt to save at-risk inner city black youth. Some championed the concept and some did not. In "Half Nelson," the idea gets turned on its head and blown to pieces as one well-intentioned teacher finds himself too consumed by the demons of drug addiction and personal despair to save himself much less save anybody else--even though he desperately wishes he could. In a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, Ryan Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a single young teacher who at first appears to be only an intellectual geek rather than a full-blown junkie. This perception crumbles when we see him calmly sneak into a bathroom stall to smoke crack cocaine and one of his students finds him there. Instead of turning him in, she chooses to exercise compassion. This gradual understanding of this particular teacher as junkie is one that viewers struggle against because at the same that we witness the pervasive intensity of his addiction, we also discover him as a coach dedicated to his middle school girls' basketball team; and as a competent lover to whom women are drawn but ultimately leave. But mostly, apart from the cocaine and the severe sexual indulgences, we discover a brilliant teacher with a passion for knowledge and ideas that he successfully ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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