"Half Nelson" DVD Review

The writing's terrific, the direction is subtle and effective, and the story's entertaining - yet none of those are the primary reasons to check out Half Nelson. It's the performances of Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie that sell this film.

Writer/director Ryan Fleck and writer/producer Anna Boden set the bar high for themselves with their first feature film. Fleck and Boden's film has won over the critics and even garnered an Oscar nomination for its star, Ryan Gosling. Half Nelson also attracted the attention of the Independent Spirit Awards, picking up seven nominations including best director, best male lead, and best first screenplay nods.

Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a history teacher who actually cares about his kids. Teaching them to ask questions and learn from the past, Dan has a huge impact on the adults they'll become. Yet Dan is human and has flaws. In fact, he has a huge drug problem and can't seem to keep himself from wanting to get high, even if it means he takes drugs on school property.

Dan's drug problem invades his teacher-student relationship with one of his better pupils when he's discovered with a crack pipe in his hand, slumped in a toilet stall in the school's restroom, by his student, Drey (Epps). Her teacher's condition is something she understands all too well as her brother's serving time in prison for a drug-related crime.

Although Dan knows he's not the best influence in Drey's life (after all, he's buying drugs from the guy who did business with her jailed brother), he does his best not to let her stray down the path he himself should never have taken. But Drey's just as important an influence in Dan's life as he is in her's and, over the course of the film, the two affect each other in life-changing ways.