Movie Review: Half Nelson

by John P. Meyer

I'm not a big fan of shaky-cam cinematography, but for Half Nelson, the first full-length feature by director Ryan Fleck, this disorienting vérité approach actually complements the story. As middle school teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is irrevocably dragged into a death spiral of self destructive drug addiction, the jerking, bobbing eye of the camera conveys a sense of the character's own view of the world. And it's a view through smoked glass, darkly.

Dan teaches a brand of socially-conscious, liberalized history slanted toward his predominantly African American class population; for a white dude, he's amazingly hip, giving his students dates to remember such as April 27, 1994 (when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa) instead of, for instance, December 25, 1776 (when Washington crossed the Delaware). He obviously understands the importance of emphasizing information that will prove relevant to his students - there's no learning without connecting, and he clearly has the respect of that segment of the kids who actually give a damn.

Included in this group is a young girl named Drey (Shareeka Epps). Drey is a quiet, serious kid, somewhat introverted (as many kids are at the age of twelve) and feeling a little bit clueless about her future. Her father is chronically absent; her mom works double shifts as an emergency med tech; and her brother's doing time in prison on drug charges. So it's no surprise that she begins to look at Dan as a male mentor and even something of a surrogate father. Dan's also the coach of the girls' basketball team on which Drey plays, providing yet another avenue for connection between the two. They talk in the hall between classes; he gives her the occasional lift home when it's too late for her to ride her bike through the inner city neighborhood; they become casual friends.

One evening after a big game, Drey - whose father has again failed to pick her up as promised - stumbles upon Dan in a stall of the otherwise deserted girls locker room. He's not at his best, having just huffed a goodly rock of crack and descended into that internal realm where self image and professional comportment are meaningless concepts. You can see that the kid is shocked and not a little disappointed to find her male role model so thoroughly hoist by his own petard, but she takes it in stride, getting him water and otherwise ministering to the recovery of his coherent and ambulatory state.

For Dan, who has to this point been weaving rather inadvertently into the lane of oncoming self destruction, his introduction to crack (purchased on a whim from his regular cocaine supplier) marks the beginning of a deliberate head-on steering campaign; he starts missing class, abusing his few fragile personal relationships, and eventually even kills his pet cat through careless neglect (man, you just can't sink much lower).

The one thread of humanity left to him is endangered when he finds Drey keeping company with an associate of her incarcerated brother named Frank (Anthony Mackie), who operates a successful drug business and is making moves to recruit Drey into his enterprise. Dan sobers up just enough to confront Frank on his home turf and warns him to stay away from Drey: a pretty empty threat, it's clear, with Frank's homeys arrayed behind him on the front lawn. And, as Frank points out, what business is it of Dan's? He's her teacher, not her Dad. To Frank, it's almost beginning to seem as though Dan has some kind of unhealthy interest in the girl.

Frank defuses the confrontation in a surprising non-violent fashion, adding richness to a character that could easily have been written as caricature: evil black urban drug merchant. This pattern repeats throughout the film - no one acts per stereotype, rather their actions are shaped by personality and events. Dan's a superlative teacher and cares about his students, but he's horribly flawed; Drey's a bright young girl who knows right from wrong, but delves into drug culture anyway because it's a viable career choice; Drey's Mom, and certainly her fellow students and teachers, have every reason to start looking at her relationship with Dan through jaundiced eyes, given that this single guy devotes so much attention to his adolescent female student, but there's never any fuss made about this in the film (aside from Frank's rather offhand observation) - that's not what their relationship is about, so the filmmakers don't waste time on it.

What Half Nelson IS about is betrayal of trust and perseverance in the face of harsh reality. If the prospect of spending 106 minutes immersed in this grim scenario doesn't make you want to leap into your love bug and sputter on down to the indie Cineplex, I fully understand. However, consider the possibility that characters with feet of clay might have something deeper to convey to us than the mythical academic crusaders of the Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me ilk - something more attuned to reality.

Impressive performances are turned in by Shareeka Epps, a young lady with an abundance of poise, wise eyes and a solid future in film; and Ryan Gosling, whose tragically crippled character makes you want to reach through the screen and slap some sense into him.

DAN'S MEMORABLE QUOTES, #1: "One thing doesn't make a man."

DAN'S MEMORABLE QUOTES, #2: "If I had a copy of Mein Kampf, would that make me a Nazi?"

This story was submitted by a member of the TexasGigs community.