Half Nelson
Issue #28
Ryan Gosling as a troubled teacher in new drama
By Rebecca Flint-Marx
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 10:00am
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a junior-high school teacher who’s well liked by his students, but he’s hardly an ideal role model. When he’s not giving impassioned history lessons or coaching the girls’ basketball team, he’s smoking crack. One night after a game, Drey (Shareeka Epps), a team member and Dunne’s star student, discovers him slumped over in the locker room, pipe in hand. Drey’s no stranger to drugs. Her brother’s in jail for selling them, and the only other male figure in her life is Frank (Anthony Mackie), the charismatic dealer her brother worked for.
It’s a setup that, in the hands of lesser filmmakers, would lead to groan-inducing cliches in the Dangerous Minds vein, but thanks to the subtle, assured work of director and co-writer Ryan Fleck and co-writer Anna Boden (as well as their fantastic cast), the relationship that forms between Drey and Dan eludes easy categorization. Drey, while centered beyond her years, is still a kid looking for someone she can depend on, and Dan, while an inspiring teacher who clearly cares about his students, is a complete mess whose failings are exposed with unsparing detail. The ground between Dan and Drey is constantly shifting: you’re never sure who is rescuing whom, or if “rescuing” is even an appropriate word to describe why Dan and Drey need one another so badly. Fleck and Boden’s screenplay refuses to point fingers. Even Frank, who wants Drey to deliver his drugs, is in many ways more together than Dan; at the very least, he’s not sniffing what he’s selling.
Although Half Nelson takes place in Brooklyn, it looks and feels like it could be anywhere — the overgrown empty lots and desolate skyline could just as easily be those of some southern city or on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The sense of dislocation adds to the film’s resonance, as does the hazy, moody score by Broken Social Scene. Dislocation is a running theme in Half Nelson, as it applies to both its characters and its audience’s expectations of them.
But while instability may reign, Fleck and Boden’s film itself is deeply rooted in the kind of clear-eyed compassion that makes it impossible to abandon its characters, even if they occasionally abandon themselves.
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more