In movies where triumph is glorified, victory is relished, and inspiration is felt, here is a film that dares to be something different. Half Nelson, although a teacher-student film, never tries to be inspirational because it's never about glory, or winning basketball leagues, or getting high test scores. It's about a teacher who tries to do something good, despite of the flaws he has in himself.

Ryan Gosling (in a quietly understated and magnificent performance) plays Dan, a History teacher, who furtively smokes crack all the time. In his home, in the girls' lavatory, in the halls, in his own dementia, he smokes crack and it's his life. Yet he doesn't consider himself fully alive because everytime he wakes up, he finds himself in his apartment floor woozy. And then he struggles to get into work, dresses up as though he had never been into shower, drags himself into the staircases and enters into his classroom with half-lidded eyes. His students were oblivious of it. But once he starts teaching his students about the dialectics of power and world history, he becomes alive, he becomes his true self. He knows that it is the only thing good in him left: teaching students about history.

It was in this melancholic scene when Dan was discovered by Drey (Shareeka Epps) on a high in a girl's lavatory, drugged and semi-conscious. Instead of running away and telling faculties off, she stayed. She helped him and let him drank water. Dan said "sorry" and it was unexplainably, she understood him in a point that she saw that even good people had flaws. And the good thing was that Drey never made a big thing about it. She kept it to herself, between her and her teacher.

Dan was a basketball coach and was fired after throwing a ball at a referee for not calling foul. Drey just smiled, and she felt grateful because her teacher had defended her of this situation. It might not be said in the film but we are sure that Drey must be thinking, "Was he a bad teacher?" In fact, Dan is a good teacher. He might not be following all the rules in the school but he teaches his students the way they deserved to be. As the story slowly evolves, there is a subtle relationship happening between these two characters, a slow hum inside our ears that they must have understood each other.

The great thing in this film is that it shows what misery is all about, and even though how flawed Dan's character was, he strives to do something good to Drey despite of himself. Ryan Gosling, also despite of himself, having starred in many teenage movies before, is absorbing as Dan and gave a wonderful performance. He carried the role very well that everytime you see him, you do not see Gosling but the man who's as almost as dead as a zombie smoking crack and doesn't know what to do with his life. It's a magnificent performance by him and he surely nailed this role. He's probably one of the best actors in his generation today. No doubt, an Oscar nomination for Best Actor was surprising yet deserving. Shareeka Epps was equally great as well. She's a great find and giving depth to her character was a job well done.

However my only qualms in this film was that no matter how the performances were great, these two actors were trapped in a very ordinary film. Some may find something really special in this film, and some might get bored and never see the depth in it, but I think it's an average film. I don't see it as very great, and I don't see it as bad either. Like Dan himself, Half Nelson is flawed, somehow miserable, and catatonic. But on the other hand, such depiction of imperfection in this film was fantastic.


Rating: B+