Product Description

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young inner-city junior high school teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Rejecting the standard curriculum in favor of an edgier approach, Dan teaches his students how change works ' on both a historical and personal scale ' and how to think for themselves.

Though Dan is brilliant, dynamic, and in control in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. His disappointments and disillusionment have led to a serious drug habit. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), catches him getting high after school.

From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship. Despite the differences in their ages and situations, they are both at an important intersection. Depending on which way they turn ' and which choices they make ' their lives will change.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13685 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2007-02-13
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.com

Sometimes people are attracted to each other because of their differences. When there's a nebulous attraction between a teacher and a young teenage child--as in the superb Half Nelson--the relationship has all the makings of confused disaster. Though there are a few uncomfortable moments when it's not obvious whether Dan (Ryan Gosling) and Drey (Shareeka Epps) might cross the line, the attraction between the pair is culled less from sexual tension than desperation. Dan is an idealistic history teacher in an inner-city school. Drey is one of his brightest students. For both, drugs represent something that may help them escape their worlds. He takes drugs to dull his dissatisfaction with himself. She views drugs as a possible way to better her life, even though she knows her brother's foray into that trade landed him in jail. Bleakly filmed and well told, Half Nelson soars because of the immaculate acting by Gosling and Epps. With his impish smile, Gosling provides a character that is at once disarming, alluring, and pitiful. As the young girl who's already seen too much hardship in her life, Epps plays her part with just the right amount of hardened raw emotion. While the ambiguous ending may not please fans weaned on happy Hollywood finales, it's a fitting and believable close to a thought-provoking film. --Jae-Ha Kim

Stills from Half Nelson (click for larger image)

Beyond Half Nelson at Amazon.com

The Films of Ryan Gosling

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The Soundtrack

Customer Reviews

Dan and Drey
For several years now I have been waiting for Ryan Gosling to fulfill the promise that he exhibited in his revolutionary performance in "The Believer." Films have come and gone and in most of them he has been giving good performances ("Murder by Numbers") and problematic ones ("The Notebook") but always with a sense of who he is as an actor and more importantly how he can use his talent and his very being to bring the story of the character he is playing alive.
Now with his Dan Dunne, Gosling has finally fulfilled that promise and his Dunne is complicated (a terrific, human, enabling and encouraging high school teacher who is also a cocaine free-baser), sensitive to a fault, sexually aware...basically a talented, educated, addicted man from a loving family that can't help but fall victim to the baser parts of his nature. He is upright, strong, smart, loving but can't help but call on the appeal of drugs to douse the raging fire of indecision and self-hatred burning deep inside of him. A fire that director/writers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden choose not to explicitly reveal, though after a Dunne family dinner we are perhaps given some hints into Dan Dunne's upbringing and politically committed family and therefore the genesis of his addiction.
Fleck and Boden give us expositional information in a very interesting way here particularly the juxtaposition, the flipping back and forth of the images between the Dunne family dinner (ex-hippie parents, socially and politically committed brother and his girlfriend... eating, drinking bottles and bottles of wine) and Dunne's student and friend Drey's evening home with family: filling small plastic bags with cocaine, chatting about her brother in jail...all polite and ordinary. But honestly: which family situation is best, which family situation is the most comforting for Dan and Drey. This masterful scene goes on for quite a long time and yet Fleck and Boden refuse to comment, refuse to put one family in a better light than the other.
Besides Gosling, there are a couple of actresses here that deserve special note. One, in a small role, though she appeared in both "Six Feet Under" and "Taken," Tina Holmes as Goslings ex and a former addict's very presence on the screen brings a certain weight and gravity to this film and of course to her role. Holmes is all sly, shy smiles, small gestures (she does more with an eye crinkle than do most with long involved scenes) and an inherent honesty and vulnerability that makes your heart hurt. She actually steals her very first scene with Gosling by under acting and the sheer luminosity of her performance.
Secondly, Shareeka Epps as Drey is amazing: she has an old soul, and like Holmes a gravity and a basic honesty that sets her apart from others in her family and the other students in this film. As her jailed brothers friend Frank (the excellent Anthony Mackie) says of Drey's friendship with Dunne: "It is inappropriate." But you know what, as presented and implemented in this film...it isn't. It's strange, it's rife with possible problems, it's audacious for sure but it's also the life preserver that saves both Dunne and Drey... it's their redemption.

Quietly Disturbing, Quietly Hopeful--Just Like Life
Ryan Gosling is, without question, one of the finest actors of his generation. And I admire that he is still choosing to work in independent, meaningful films. He's come a long way from his days as a Mouseketeer. I contend that if "The Believer" had not been dismissed from Academy consideration due to a technicality, he could have made a serious bid for a Best Actor nomination several years ago. Even his work in more conventional films like "The Notebook" and "Murder By Numbers" is noteworthy and raises the quality of those productions.

"Half Nelson" is a small film about real people struggling with real problems. Shareeka Epps stars as Drey in a very straightforward, natural performance. She is growing up with the fear that she will become like her brother. He became entrenched in the world of drugs and is currently serving time. There is almost a feeling of inevitability, this is her world and she is incapable of escaping it. Gosling's Dan, on the other hand, is a semi-functioning drug addict who is her teacher. There is a helplessness to his life as well--he shows very little interest in actually changing his situation. But while he doesn't feel as if he can save himself, he channels that concern into saving Drey. And where she can't change her own circumstances, she makes a connection with Dan.

It's an interesting dynamic, one that isn't often portrayed. And the closeness of their bond can be somewhat unsettling in that they are teacher/student, male/female, adult/child. It's not an easy relationship to form under ordinary circumstances.

There are no major revelations by the characters in "Half Nelson". No major confrontations, no climactic scene, no tidy ending. It's just two characters quietly drawn to each other and gaining strength, however fleetingly, from that association. You're left to ponder what will happen with these characters once the film has ended. You may have a glimmer of hope, but realistically you know it's going to be an uphill battle. Ultimately the movie's realism, and lack of an answer, are it's strongest asset. Life doesn't come in tidy packages for any of us. KGHarris, 12/06.

Dark and Disturbing Story - Exceedingly Well Acted
"Half Nelson" is one of those small films that tackles gritty subject matter without concern to being "politically correct" or - worse -"marketable" to a mass audience. This allows the Actors and Writers more artistic freedom. Reminiscent of 2000's excellent "Requiem for a Dream," "Half Nelson" shows the ravages of drug addiction on a seemingly normal person. At the beginning of the film, Ryan Gosling's Dan Dunne seems merely an offbeat, creative inner-city Teacher, but the depth of his crack addition soon begins to show. Mr. Gosling bravely tackles this role with grace and a strange dignity - halfway into the film he wears a goofy bandage on his lip after a girlfriend pops him during a crack-fueled seduction. His Oscar nomination is well-deserved: he never takes this role "over the top" and manages to be sympathetic and tragic all at once. Ms. Epps is excellent as well, displaying a maturity and finesse as Mr. Gosling's ally.