Mavis Ang
Half Nelson is like a piece of fine art. Some will find it exceptionally beautiful because it contains a message they can relate to, while others beg to differ.
Despite the film’s countless nominations (Independent Spirit Award’s best director, best feature, and best first screenplay) and praises like “A near-perfect film” by TimeOut New York, UrbanWire thought that this movie was bland except for Ryan Gosling’s outstanding performance as an inspirational teacher with a drug problem.
Set in a dreary neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, the movie has Dan Dunne (Gosling) as an engaging history teacher at a junior high school by day and a junkie by night. Dan doesn’t seem to have a problem fitting in among the primarily African-American community, and continues to inspire his 13-year-old students through active debates on civil rights and war. (Before I go on, please note that this is not one of those boringly inspirational teacher-student films like Dangerous Minds or Dead Poets Society because Half Nelson chooses to show us reality, instead of a rose-tintedly wholesome view of people)
Dan is also the school’s girls’ basketball coach, and gets caught by one of his students when he decides to get stoned after a basketball match. I’m glad there was no typical dramatic confrontation about how disappointed and deceived the student was about the teacher’s situation. Instead, Drey (Shareeka Epps) simply handed him a wet towel and squat quietly beside Dan, waiting for the drugs to wear off.
Although the characters are amazingly real, and it is a plus point for first-time director Ryan Fleck to put forward a less idealistic view on people, he fails to make an interesting movie around the characters. Without much plot development or any climax, Half Nelson soon becomes a drag to watch.
It felt as if Fleck just decided to bring a handy cam with him, and make a documentary about a druggie teacher and his precarious student. Maybe the shaky shots, thanks to the lack of any tripod, apparently, and incessant close-ups were to bring out the rawness of the film, but it just didn’t work for me.
After the incident in which Drey discovers that her teacher is a drug addict, she forms an interesting bond with him and often gets free rides home from him. Dan soon finds out that Drey has got closer to Frank (Anthony Mackie), a successful drug dealer, who is cultivating her into the trade as a drug-runner.
Don then ironically tries to make things right for Drey by trying to wean her off Frank. Instead of successfully making a change in his student’s personal life, I liked the way the film went away with the predictable plot and ended their comical confrontation right where they started, with no significant change at all. However, it also leaves the audience right where the film started as well, where nothing really happened and the characters still have nothing interesting going on for them, in essence rendering the last 106 minutes moot
Unlike the plot (or lack of one), the cast performs admirably. Gosling (who starred in The Notebook) has delivered a performance that completely blew me away, and it was a pleasure watching such young talent working a complex role. From his sleepy drugged out eyes to rousing classroom speeches, he won critics over and was awarded the winner for ‘Breakthrough Performance by an Actor’ by the National Board of Review, showcasing an incredible range different from his previous films like Stay and Remember the Titans.
Matching up flawlessly to Gosling was his precocious co-star, Shareeka Epps. This being her acting debut, she did it effortlessly, and her low key acting was perfectly suited for her role as a street smart girl on the edge of innocence.
At the end of the day, our guess is it was brilliant acting, and not of the actual story which got this film inexplicably praised by critics.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Movie details
Opens: 1st February 2007
Runtime: 106 minutes
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Eeps
Director: Marc Forster