Half Nelson (2006)
The Cast
Ryan Gosling ... Dan Dunne
Shareeka Epps ... Drey
Anthony Mackie ... Frank
Monique Curnen ... Isabel
Karen Chilton ... Karen
Tina Holmes ... Rachel
Collins Pennie ... Mike
Over the past few years there's been a number of movies made that appeal to a certain mentality of people. I don't necessarily want to label them "emo" movies, but for the most part the fans of these particular movies are of the emo persuasion. I have no idea why this is, but the movies that the emo crowd tend to champion seem to have nothing in common, other than a lead male character that is distinguished mostly by their bleak and world-weary attitude. I had heard almost nothing about Half Nelson when it was first released, and then I saw the soundtrack when it came in at work. Broken Social Scene provided the soundtrack to the movie and I pretty much came to the conclusion that this would be another movie championed by tEMO.
First of all, if you've seen Finding Forrester, you'll see a lot of similarities in the plot of Half Nelson. That being said, I enjoyed Half Nelson far more than I enjoyed hearing Sean Connery say "You're the man now, dog!" Ryan Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a bright and seemingly enthusiastic junior high school teacher working at an inner-city school. Unlike Goldie Hawn, Dunne doesn't have to earn the respect of his pupils by running more laps than them. He treats them as equals while at the same time acknowledging their base differences. His dialectics style of teaching doesn't go over too well with the school's administration, but that's not the focus of the movie.
Dunne is a drug addict, using crack as a means to ... well that's all open to your own interpretations, though I felt his crack usage was based primarily on his growing frustration at his own perceived inability to exercise change on the world around him. His habit grows so desperate that he's found using by a student of his after a school basketball game that he coached. Drey (Epps) doesn't pass judgment on Dunne, as she's already seen her brother Mike (Pennie) go to jail for not snitching on Frank (Mackie), a neighborhood drug dealer. The two soon share a seemingly inappropriate friendship of sorts, both of them having the best of intentions to improve the other person's life, or at the very least, understand it.
I haven't seen the rest of the nominated performances in this year's Best Actor Oscar race, nor do I really feel the need to. What Ryan Gosling does with his portrayal of Dunne is nothing short of amazing. When he's on the screen, no one else comes close to touching his acting chops, effortlessly fitting in to a situation usually reserved for stupid fish-out-of-water comedies. When he speaks the language of his students, he does it earnestly and selflessly unaware. The rest of the cast is decent enough, but this is Gosling's movie and hopefully his Oscar come Sunday night.
Director Ryan Fleck seems to fall back on clichéd film techniques when it comes to establishing the drug usage of Dunne. Out of focus camerawork, a score brimming with feedback and distortion, dark shadows, all things that instantly convey to me that yes, this is a seemingly hopeless character on a downward spiral, I get it, thank you. Other than those gripes, this is a fairly decent movie. Bleak but with a current of hope running throughout it, which suits a cheerfully depressed guy such as me just fine.
3.5 / 5