NEW REVIEW!!
HALF NELSON
(2006, dir. Ryan Fleck)

Arden ♥s this movie!!

Alright. Enough dicking around back to the reviews.

Inexplicably emerging from Sundance with no awards, Half Nelson tells the story of a crack-addicted high school teacher in Brooklyn. Played by Ryan Gosling with a finesse I can’t even articulate, Dan Dunne walks the crooked line every addict does. The line eventually leads to inappropriate social behavior, financial irresponsibility and debasing sexual encounters. Yes. You heard me right. We can’t all be Maggie Cheung. Not every story of addiction is an operatic ode to the destitution of the soul. Some of us just use others for sex, can reasonably function after an all-nighter and show up on time for the job we hate. In this case: high school social studies.

Half Nelson frames that period of time in an addict’s life when apathy and carelessness begin to eclipse the everyday routine. This series of events is set into motion when one of Dan’s students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), finds him passed out in the girl’s bathroom with a crack vile in his hand. They form what other critics call an “uneasy bond” but I like to think of as a codependent relationship. For Dan, Drey represents danger as well as salvation. She could turn him in but at the same time she presents him with several opportunities to be a good person. Conversely, he provides her with an older male figure to fill the void left by her absent father and incarcerated brother. Her budding sexuality as well as her need for love and approval can be projected onto him.

Truthfully this is the kind of film that 30 years ago would’ve won Best Picture. It’s a hotly political film without being preachy. It touches on so many issues in our society today by stating the obvious while also hinting at how the considerable tensions of race and class and ideology manifest themselves in the mundane. Director Ryan Fleck has a wonderful eye. He obviously has a great affinity for actors and many of the scenes feel as if they are growing organically out of the performances. I have been a little weary of the overuse of pseudo-cinema-verite since the early 90s but Half Nelson is an excellent example of how it can work. The style reminded me of Cassavetes but it had a softer edge and felt more purposeful.

This sense of purpose can make some of the twist and turns of the plot predictable. Not necessarily a bad thing but the script can veer toward overtly sentimental. Still, I do have to congratulate Fleck and his writing partner, Anna Boden, for marrying and then thwarting two popular genres of modern American film: the drug film and the teacher-inspires-students film. They also have great taste in actors... casting and utilizing Denis O’Hare, Tina Homes (from Keane!!), the impossibly good-looking Anthony Mackie, and newcomer Epps.

Gosling carries the film like a slender and silent Atlas. He is, far and away, the most unselfish actor I have ever seen. When you think of star-making perfs from a 20-something you think of maybe, like, Leo in Gilbert Grape. And although he’s great in that film he pops out from the rest of the landscape like a sore thumb screaming to be recognized. Gosling blends into the background. The scenes are never about him and his performance. The film is not about him. He is the film. He is present with the other actors. He’s part of the bathroom wall or the woman he’s making love to or the dirty mattress he sleeps on. He’s also FUNNY. I am now graduating him from the young Brandosketeers club to honest-to-God leading man. He will probably never be an icon or a movie star because he’s too good and too giving and too invisible behind his characters. Of course, that might just be wishful thinking on my part.

Bottom Line: Not everyone will enjoy this lovely and powerful film but I urge you, if it’s playing near you, to support it and the talent/heart that went into it.