Film Reviews

Half Nelson

• Rating:
• Director: Ryan Fleck.
• Starring: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Karen Chilton.
• Details: US / 106mins (15A).

Dan Dunne (Gosling) is lonely, in debt, stays up all night smoking crack, but still has to pull it together every morning to teach eighth-grade history and coach the girl's basketball team. Dan likes to teach his class his way and while his lectures veer from the curriculum, much to the chagrin of his principal, they are heartfelt and seem to get an emotional response from his students - especially 13-year-old Drey (Epps), who, despite her age, is wise beyond her years. When Drey finds Dan stoned out of his trumpet in the school toilets, it's the wakeup call he needs. Drey and Dan become friends, and both try to make a difference in each other's lives. Half Nelson could have been a great movie; strike that - a great movie - but Ryan Fleck (and I've no idea why he did this) backed down in the last two scenes and turned his film into a sunshine, lollipops and rainbows movie. That's the only downer as Half Nelson is a buddy movie with a difference and although not a lot happens, it has the power to absorb the viewer for the duration. The film, up until those final two scenes, is a compelling, downbeat character study that attempted to say important things about the world today. It showed how cold society can be and makes no excuses for it. The surprising element, and what makes it a cut above the rest, is that, even though it's a nice-school-treacher-attempts-to-make-a-difference-like-Dangerous-Minds-or-Freedom-Writers-middle-of-the-road- nonsense, there isn't one stereotype on show. Even Mackie's drug dealer, who takes Drey under his wing, has a couple of layers to him: yes, he's a drug dealer, but he's not the soulless, seen-it-all-before dealer - he's got warmth and genuinely cares for Drey. The two leads are magnificent: Gosling downplays every disastrous turn in Dan's life, when most would do a Pacino on it, and deserves his Oscar nomination, while Epps, making her debut here, matches him scene for scene.

Review by Gavin Burke