'Half Nelson': Riveting reality

Dan Dunne is an idealistic young junior high school teacher, trying to make a difference in inner-city Brooklyn. Watching him trying to excite the minds of 13- and 14-year-olds about civil rights and other topics, he seems to be the sort of educator we need more of, until we learn of his own serious flaws.

For Dan (the intense Ryan Gosling) is caught in a half nelson hold of his drug habit, an addiction to crack cocaine that threatens to destroy his life and cause collateral damage to those around him. He, and an impressionable young student named Drey (remarkable newcomer Shareeka Epps), who is desperately seeking an adult to look up to, careen through life in the stark, but compelling Half Nelson, an eye-opening look at the challenges of the classroom and of life.

ThinkFilm 'Half Nelson' B+ The verdict: A gritty tale of a drug-addicted teacher and a student he befriends, with superb performances by Gosling and Epps. 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 Rate 'Half Nelson'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Besides teaching history, Dan coaches the girls' basketball team. One night after a game, Drey discovers him on the floor of a locker room bathroom stall, high on coke, clutching his crack pipe. A pitiable sight. When it becomes clear that no one is coming to pick her up, Dan offers to drive Drey home and an unusual friendship forms between them, as each becomes a potential lifeline for the other.

As Dan struggles to keep from crumbling — an effort that is not helped by his angry outbursts at authority figures and his rapidly deteriorating classroom behavior — Drey faces her own challenges. Her brother is doing time for dealing drugs and his partner, Frank (Anthony Mackie), is trying to recruit her into the business. Although Dan is a customer of Frank's, he recognizes the potential in Drey and gets into a tug of war with Frank to be the dominant influence over her.

While the performances of Gosling and Epps are the main reasons to see Half Nelson, it also represents the arrival of director Ryan Fleck and his co-writer/producer Anna Boden. Together, they made a short version of this story, called Gowanus, Brooklyn, which was a prize winner at Sundance two years ago, and now they have made an assured feature debut with this expanded version. There are times that the repetitive story feels a bit padded, but the honesty of the actors and the naturalism of the screenplay carry the film past its imperfections.

Gosling first gained attention with another Sundance film, 2001's The Believer, playing an unrepentantly bigoted skinhead, then showed a completely different side of himself in the studio romantic drama, The Notebook. Here he digs inside the anguished Dan, inhabiting his conflicted nature, a well-meaning liberal out to change the world, but unable to control himself. It is a showy role, with its moments of rage and somnambulism, and Gosling shows his range without ever seeming to be acting.

In many ways, the tiny Epps matches him in screen impact. Her Drey is street-smart, yet vulnerable, sassy, but unsure of herself. This is a performance full of nuance and understanding, a first screen effort brimming with promise.

Half-Nelson is a hard movie to shake off, with its gritty look into the urban world and into the soul of its characters. Director Fleck gives it a raw visual style that suggests a documentary, and a view of life that is all too real.