Half Nelson

Director: Ryan Fleck

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie

Half Nelson is an achingly reflective, pensively drawn exploration of struggle and disillusionment, compromising and discussing the dialectics of life.

Fleck’s narrative pursues the efforts of inner-city junior high school teacher, and basketball coach, Dan Dunne (Gosling) in his attempts to expand the minds of his students. Dunne’s anti-textbook and idealistic approach to the teaching of history leads into a scrutiny of opposing forces in his classroom. Black versus white, good versus evil, right versus wrong; these counter ideals punctuate the film, questioning morality and enforcing the necessity of change. Dunne lives alone with his cat and with his decrepit furniture, alluding to his own failing belief in his ability to make a difference. It is when, caught smoking crack by troubled, 13 year old basketball player, Drey (Epps), that failing and spiralling become the key motifs of the film. Drey, tough but lonely with an overworked mother and a brother in prison, and the disillusioned Dunne forge an unlikely and tenuous relationship as they try to save each other from their dangerous possible choices.

Gosling was nominated for Best Actor at the 2006 Academy Awards, and it is clear why. His rough but casual appearance, and relaxed but simultaneously edgy performance, embodies the dialectics of the plot and creates a lasting impression. It is a struggle to watch, as Gosling provides a painful and endearing portrayal of Dunne in his descent from hope. Half Nelson is Epps’ feature length introduction. Currently still at school studying dance, she was discovered by writers/filmmakers Fleck and Anna Boden. They initially used her in their 19minute film, Gowanus, Brooklyn, 2004, which Half Nelson is the feature length version of and in which Epps starred as Drey as well. Her performance is stunningly powerful, gritty and impervious, much like the setting of the film.

Aesthetically run down but hard and steely in its beauty, Brooklyn is presented as a place submerged in race, drug and economic problems, but it is simultaneously warm, alive and inviting, again incorporating Fleck’s obsession with dialectics. The sound track adds to this impenetrable yet encompassing sensation conveyed by Half Nelson’s mise-en-scène. Broken Social Scene scored the film, and the music fills the frames with a buzzing, wistful, earthy, jazz-esque, achingly beautiful melody, which epitomises the fragility of the characters and their tangibly connected fates.

Ella Walker