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'Half Nelson': Talented actors in a well-told story

Forget what you think you know about Ryan Gosling, the pretty star of the weepy romance "The Notebook."

"Half Nelson" reveals him as an actor of fierce talent, with far more darkness and depth than that chick flick would suggest. (Gosling also starred in the 2002 movie "The Believer," as a Jewish youth living a secret life as a skinhead. You might have missed it: Despite receiving critical acclaim, the movie never made it into theaters and instead aired on Showtime.)

ThinkFilm 'Half Nelson' B+ The verdict: Characters you'll care about in a story that feels real. Director: Ryan Fleck Starring: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders Run time: 107 minutes Release date: August 11, 2006 Rating: Rated R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality. On the web Official movie site [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Here he plays Dan Dunne, an idealistic junior high school teacher living a contradictory, self-destructive double life. By day, he uses creative methods to instruct his students in inner-city Brooklyn about history; by night, he uses crack, or whatever other drug he can get his hands on.

Scruffy and scrawny, charismatic and totally in control in the classroom, he's the coolest teacher you never had — a hipster with a brain. He actually cares about the topics he's discussing (mainly the civil rights movement) and he does it in a passionate, textbook-free way that makes his kids care, too, while frustrating the school's rigid principal.

But Dan can't seem to transfer those same skills to his personal life (hence the title, we think). Lines of coke on the coffee table of his shabby apartment soon lead to hits off a crack pipe in the locker room after a basketball game, where he also serves as girls' team coach.

Day and night start bleeding dangerously into each other. Co-workers notice him stumbling in bleary-eyed, when he shows up at all; girlfriends don't stick around for long. But he finds a vague ray of hope in an unexpected friendship with Drey (the astonishingly assured Shareeka Epps), a troubled student and basketball player who becomes his inadvertent ally when she catches him in the act.

Drey, too, needs some guidance, with her mom working long hours and the only father figure in her life a powerful neighborhood drug dealer (Anthony Mackie) who seems interested in protecting her, but isn't above sending her out on transactions.

All of this could have been overly feel-good, a retread of "Finding Forrester," but director Ryan Fleck and his co-writer, Anna Boden, present the material with a bracing realism that keeps the film raw and grounded. With their first feature after a series of documentaries and shorts, they've crafted a movie that, except for a couple of scenes that are a bit contrived, provides subtle truths and no easy answers.

Their use of hand-held camerawork reflects Dan's instability from the very beginning (and the constant movement almost feels too obvious, but then it settles down and makes sense). Fleck and Boden clearly are also confident enough in themselves to show instead of telling; their characters do things to indicate who they are, instead of just talking about it. These are filmmakers who aren't afraid of stillness and silence; it's a rare thing, and it enhances the film's sense of naturalism.

So does the performance from Epps, who also starred in Fleck and Boden's short "Gowanus, Brooklyn," which was the original incarnation of "Half Nelson." Tough and smart on the outside but sweet and introspective beneath the bravado, she's created in Drey a complete character capable of saving someone who appears beyond redemption.

At least you'd like to see her give it a try.