It's been done before: the film about the liberal teacher who enters the inner city school and makes an enormous difference in his students' lives. Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds are just two examples. For that reason, I admit to viewing Half Nelson with some trepidation, expecting some well-meaning hokum--the kind of movie made to warm the heart.
Instead, Ryan Fleck's first feature is a startling and unexpectedly moving surprise. The screenplay (by Fleck and Anna Boden) turns the genre upside down. Idealistic history teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a free thinker and crack addict. He forms a wildly inappropriate friendship with a black eighth-grade student (Shareeka Epps) only after she finds him passed out in a stall of the girl's bathroom, crack vial in his hand.
Ryan Gosling's performance is so good he doesn't seem to be acting. The chasm between the loose and easy teacher and the strung out addict looking for the next fix is shocking and always convincing. Adolescent newcomer Shareeka Epps is also brilliant; the neediness of young Drey, a latch key kid in danger of falling prey to a neighborhood dealer (Anthony Mackie), inspires tenderness.
Half Nelson never falls victim to cliched storytelling or canned emotion; every scene holds a certain force. When Dan's life begins spiraling out of control, Drey becomes his unlikely witness - and in a fascinating reversal of roles--his protector, his conscience.
