Review of Half Nelson (2006) by Dan S — 17 Oct 2009

Ryan Gosling is one of the greatest actors of our times and I feel that he has found one of his perfect roles, and yes it's as portraying a junkie. This movie opens up following an inner-city school teacher/coach, Gosling, who has already hit rock bottom with his drug use (cocaine and crack) but is inspired by one of his students, Shareeka Epps, to keep showing up to work and sometimes teaching. We watch the student/teacher relationship move to a brief junkie/dealer role when Epps finds Gosling completely out of his mind while holding a crack pipe in the girls locker room after a basketball game, but eventually they become codependent friends with the student appearing to be older and wiser than her teacher.

This is not your standard urban school story with a white teacher swooping in and saving the day by inspiring an entire classroom, rather, we find the white teacher is saved by the one student he was able to reach out to by finding himself as apart of her corrupted world. I can't wait to see what Gosling is able to do next.