Review of Half Nelson (1985) by Kylie P — 21 Feb 2010

From October 1, 2008:

In Half Nelson, Gosling's performance was good - even great. Unfortunately, the film he put so much heart and soul into was not.

Gosling gave a great performance. It was natural, believable, and felt oddly effortless watching him fill the shoes of what can only be described as a tortured soul: a good boy who made bad choices and seems beholden to the vicious cycle of beating himself up and then making the same choices to self-medicate. His journey - or the snapshot of it captured by this film - is as poignant as it is because Gosling seemed to surrender himself to the role, just as an addict does to his/her addiction. He deserved his nomination.

Shareeka Epps also gave a very good performance. Whether intentional or not, her Drey balanced innocence and maturity in ways that other child actors have not managed, and she was also very natural. Once the viewer moves past the awkward bonding phase of these two people, their friendship was all the more touching because of how the two actors played their roles.

The problems with this film were kind of huge and centered on three main points: story, resonance, and pacing. The story begins by offering us glimpses into Dan's life without offering any background, substantitve or otherwise. Hints and insinuations about Dan's pre-addiction self are scattered throughout the film and are offered by supporting characters that flit in and out of frame with only vague references to the past and momentary glimpses and guesses into what informed Dan's addiction. It took an hour to paint the portrait of the addict and his budding friendship without giving the viewer a reason why s/he should care. The conversation with his ex-girlfriend, the dinner with his family, all of those scenes might better have served the story if the scenes were presented in the first half hour or so of the film. Whether it's editing, screenwriting, or both to attribute to this is hard to say.

Drey's character was better developed; her story was told in a more linear fashion, possibly as a way to demarcate the fact that she was a child and an innocent on the brink of puberty and adulthood compared to Dan's addiction-addled state of mind. Yet, even if the film was meant only to be a snapshot of a man and young girl in trouble, looking for solace, there should be some emotional resonance that engages the viewer and suspends disbelief. This film had moments - there was a particularly fine moment when the Dan and Drey characters were at their lowest and meet in an awkward location at an awkward time - but, for the most part, this film felt flat, and even that significant moment was subdued by the two-dimensional quality of everything that came before it. The supporting performances were unconvincing, and the emotional resonance of the situation between the two characters was clouded by the lack of connection with the viewer through what parts of their stories were filmed.

In addition, and others have said it, there is a distinct flavor of the "white savior of the lost inner-city black child;" even if that cliche was tweaked and turned upside down by the drug addiction, the Frank character calls attention to it in the back half of the movie, and the viewer, or at least this one, couldn't shake the notion for the rest of the film. Even if this film cannot distinctly be called offensive because of how the formula was altered, it lost impact when one of the characters in the film explicitly made a statement about how Dan is coming off as "white is right," signifying that this is just another genre film a la Dangerous Minds or something with better acting, less obvious viewer manipulation, and a slight twist. Also, the random clips of incidents and struggles throughout the civil rights movement felt so out of place and only fuel this observation.

Still, all of that wouldn't be so bad if the film was not so slow and protracted. Perhaps, the deliberately sluggish pace served the story that this particular director and screenwriter wanted to tell, but it also served to alienate the viewer. This all sounds rather scathing. It's not meant to be. Ryan Gosling alone is the reason to see this film, though, and it's better to have the lowest expectations possible going in.