What I’m Watching at Home: Half Nelson

 

Viewed on December 30, 2012 on Netflix Streaming

My girlfriend loves Ryan Gosling (I’m sure I’m not the first man to say those words). Her favorite movie of all time is 2011’s Drive. So, in the mood for a Gosling movie, she suggested Half Nelson. In it, Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a middle school teacher in a black neighborhood. He teaches history, and he seems to be good at it. At least the students respond to him. The administration would prefer he stick to the standard curriculum, but Dan has his own approach which is less about the names and dates of history and more about the why’s and how’s. He loves teaching, loves reaching the kids. The problem is he also loves drugs, crack in particular.

He does a pretty good job of keeping his addiction separate from his work life until one night when his student, Drey (played by Shareeka Epps) finds him getting high in the school bathroom. She helps him sober up and he drives her home, and now they’re more than just teacher and student. They’re friends.

Drey has a troubled life herself. Her mom works all the time, her older brother is in jail for selling drugs, and the same guy who he sold drugs for is now trying to recruit her. Dan continuously puts himself between Drey and the drug dealer Frank (played by Anthony Mackie) in order to protect her. But maybe if he really wants to help her, and in turn himself, he should be putting something between himself and the drugs. Then again, he ends up teaching Drey a valuable lesson about addiction just by letting her see what it does to him.

Gosling was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, and I can see why. He does a good job of showing the difference between Mr. Dunne, the teacher, and Dan, the drug-addict. He comes alive when he’s in the classroom, whereas he moves sluggishly and aimlessly through the rest of his life. I don’t think you’ll love him as a person, but you will sympathize with him, and you will root for him, though I found myself rooting for Drey even more. She’s the kid. She’s the one with all of her future ahead of her.

Shareeka Epps gives a good performance as well. You always have to worry about child actors. They can seriously hurt a movie if they’re not good (I’m looking right at you Red Hook Summer), but she pulls it off here. She conveys both innocence and toughness. She could handle herself on the streets, but you don’t want her to. You want her to be laughing and smiling and learning in the classroom.

The movie’s narrative is broken up by these talking head moments in which students deliver oral reports on history and politics to the camera. I didn’t really get the point of these. Why have students address the audience about Brown vs. Board of Ed or the Attica prison riots? I didn’t see how that tied into Dan’s or Drey’s plight. I got the sense the movie was trying to make statements about the political/economic/racial system of our country, but I’m just not sure what it said about them. It might be my fault. Maybe I need to watch it again and study those moments more to grasp their significance, but I don’t think I will. The heart of the movie was Dan’s and Drey’s relationship, and I enjoyed watching it, but I think once was enough.

My Rating:

Half Nelson
Director: Ryan Fleck (Sugar, It’s Kind of  a Funny Story)
Writers: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden (Together: Sugar, It’s Kind of  a Funny Story)

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