Half Nelson

HALF NELSON is a realistic portrait of drug use. Often, for privileged members of society, or like the well-off history teacher in HALF NELSON, drug use is a pleasant luxury. But once confronted with the means by which those drugs are acquired, it creates a sense of guilt. In HALF NELSON, a dedicated, alternative history teacher named Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) teaches his group of underprivileged students about the way history affects their lives, and between classes and after school, smokes crack. Director Ryan Fleck understands drugs though, he gives no specific "reason" for Dan's drug use because most well off people don't have a reason. This is a film about drug's effect on people, and what they mean to specific people. When Dan begins to take a student under his wing named Drey (Shakeera Epps), he sees drugs effect on her life. For him, drugs are an escape and a pleasure, but for Drey, they mark a future of drug running, and are exhibited in the ruined lives of her low-class relatives. Dan's realization of the negative effects on Drey, in contrast to his earlier thinking: that he wasn't hurting anyone by experiencing a solitary pleasure. Furthermore, Fleck strains the worth of Dan, who, on drugs, is still a great history teacher, inspiring his students to whom drugs are a sad future. This is a complex issue, and it is approached with complexity and understanding.
Half Nelson: ★★★★