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Half Nelson

Review By: Stephen Snart
StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com

As we approach the midpoint of our eighth month of 2006, Half Nelson emerges as the first truly great film to be released this year. It’s a grim tale about drug addiction and the inability to escape a societal adversity. At times it can be quite difficult to watch but ultimately it’s a story about survival and the emotional uplift that we find in the arms of a good friend.

At the heart of the film is an unlikely friendship. It serves as the resiliently beating pulse that tries desperately to revitalize the overwhelming atrophy that surrounds.

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a disheveled but intelligent junior high teacher at an underprivileged Brooklyn public school. His approach to teaching is slightly unorthodox but he has a real talent for his job. Instead of dulling his students with cut-and-dry history lessons, he interacts with them by finding ways to relate the material to their personal lives. Away from the schoolyard he considers himself an aspiring novelist but he can’t quite find the time to finish his latest project. He says it’s because he spends so much time in the classroom or coaching the girls’ basketball team but really it’s his all-consuming drug addiction that forbids him to accomplish his dream.

His former girlfriend, a recovering addict herself, returns to town eager to get in touch with him. Dan is initially quite successful at avoiding her but eventually she surprises him at one of his basketball games and reveals that she will be marrying a man she met in rehab. The news affects Dan more than he would like to admit. He’s afflicted by the fact that his addiction is still so fierce whereas she has been able to overcome her's and move on with her life.

In a moment of unforgivable weakness he retreats to the girls’ bathroom for a fix. He doesn’t realize that one of his students, Drey (Shareeka Epps) is still hanging around the gym waiting for a ride home. She stumbles upon him crouched in a bathroom stall. His profuse sweating, bloodshot eyes and uncontrollable fidgeting immediately give him away. Instead of calling the police or alerting the school board, Drey brings him water and helps him as he comes down from his high in a frighteningly prolonged manner.

And so, an unlikely friendship is forged on the bathroom floor. Dan is forever indebted to her after that night but Drey needs him too. She is a warm-hearted and bright young girl but her home life is in shambles. Her father is non-existent and her