This movie is set in a cliche ridden movie area, inner city school with and idealistic white teacher trying to advance the children further in life. Half Nelson manages to steer clear of the cliches that plague other movies of this type through it's strong acting, believability, great shooting and strong writing.
This movie stars Ryan Gosling as an idealistic teacher who is well liked and cherished among staff and students. At night though he drugs himself with cocaine to get by. He is incredible in this movie. He is believable and truly takes on the role of Dan Dunne. He is touching and he portrays his character with so much emotional depth it is a travesty he didn't win an Oscar that year. This was one of my favorite actor performances of the last decade. The girl who plays Drey also gives a likewise performance as a girl whose parents are never there for her and a brother who is in jail for dealing narcotics, who finds comfort with a teacher who rarely finds comfort in others. She was simply mesmerizing and it truly showed. She was totally believable and real. There really was not a person out of place in this film. all the actors were believable and kept you connected to the story.
A strong central theme to this movie was how two opposing forces go up against each other. This was done incredibly well in this movie with a number of inter cut juxtapositions(Dan sex scene juxtaposed with Drey). It is also portrayed in almost every aspect of Dan's life whether it be him being an idealistic teacher while at night he is addicted to cocaine or how both the lead characters are struggling to escape from a drug filled world.
The shooting style of this film almost felt documentary like at times. It has no fancy lighting no heavily decorated sets or anything like that, just the bare bones stuff. It could not have suited this movie better. The movie tried to portray a movie that feels real and the shooting style definitely helps that. It had the raw indie feeling to it(it almost felt like a foreign film) so that really helped. It is also has a soundtrack of Broken Social Scene songs that fit the movie well but are used sparsely. This is a good trait. The lack of music and external sounds really helps portray the reality of the situations and helps you feel the emotions between the characters.
The writing of this movie to put it simply was stunning. It was real and raw and you couldn't help but feel for the characters as they struggled in everyday life in the inner city. It was subtle and did not shove a message of the school system, race or drug abuse down your throat but let let you come to your own conclusions about these topics. It also portrayed drug use in way rarely seen in movies. It did not portray drug users as so sick diseased person but like people you'd meet everyday and that's the true reality. Drug users can be anyone and that is great that this movie portrayed it in such a real and honest way.
As a last point I would love to touch on Dan's family. We see his parents both political activists in the 60's now just a couple of suburbanites who are alcoholics. We also see his brother and girlfriend. These two go on peaceful protests and the like and are in fact cardboard cut outs of a happy couple in the suburbs. The interesting part of the family is truly the parents. I feel that they are the foil to Dan's character. They have substituted political action for alcohol and have truly given up hope on politics and the future(the father mocks Dan about teaching). They were once in the middle of the action but have now detached themselves from it. This is far from how Dan is trying to teach the young inner city children about civil rights and the like.
Half Nelson manages to avoid the cliche of the inner city school children being taught to succeed and manages to paint an authentic and harrowing tale of struggle with modern, everyday life. It is acted by an incredible ensemble who are lead by Ryan Gosling, who gives the performance of his life. It was a first for director Ryan Fleck and he shows great promise in his career(I have yet to see his follow up Sugar but I hear it's fantastic. He also has a new movie coming out Sept. 2010 which looks promising so we will see.)
86/100 A
-Hutz
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