Half Nelson

A very good movie with excellent acting. Once you get beyond the hand-held digital video quality of this movie, you will find a story and acting that are both outstanding. Ryan Gosling certainly deserved his Oscar nomination for this role. His acting always felt genuine and believable, and he did an excellent job of portraying a good man battling his personal demons. Shareeka Epps is a surprising newcomer, and she did an excellent job in her role as well. Overall, this was a very good movie. Highly recommended.

Ryan 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."

"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!

"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 in the girl's bathroom. She knows what the problem is, but she does not judge. They become teacher and student but most of all two lonely souls become friends. This is an above board relationship that is needed by both of them. Everyone needs a little help every now and then.

"Help HELP!
HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY,
HELP! NOT JUST ANYBODY,
HELP! YOU KNOW I NEED SOMEONE, HELP." The Beatles

"One of Dan's pet topics in history class is dialectics, the theory that world events move forward as a result of the struggle between opposing forces. He offers various real-life models of this struggle: the civil rights movement, the assassination of Salvador Allende. But Drey's best illustration of the push-and-pull of dialectics (the "half-nelson" wrestling lock of the title) is her own life."

Highly Recommended. prisrob 09-14-08

The Believer

Inner 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.