A great character role by Ryan Gosling as Dan Dunne, an imaginative and creative high school teacher with a drug habit. Eventually his extra curricular life catches up with him when friends and colleagues see some bizarre behaviour. Ryan Gosling shows a range of acting talents as a dedicated teacher whose life spirals out of control. The hidden life is first discovered by one of his students, Drea, a good friend. I liked their initial friendship, which became more than just being friends. The student, played by Shareeka Epps, and Anthony Mackie as Frank, the nice guy dealer, are both outstanding among some other fine supporting actors. A great performance by Gosling with a fine cast behind him is a movie worth seeing.

Gosling carries the film out of semi obscurity, undeservedly so, with a tour de force performance conveying bravery and range well beyond his years. He plays a young and apparently together history teacher/ basketball coach at a predominantly black Brooklyn school, battling with severe depression and addiction while off duty. When one semi troubled and off the tracks student uncovers his secret in a brutal and chilling bathroom scene, their connection evolves to an ever growing judgmental and glass-house-rapport leading to an inevitable and somewhat unexpected interconnection.Missing a stronger grasp at the helm and more effective editing, Ryan Fleck overuses the shaky camera to a point of exhaustion, beyond what the gripping story asks for sometimes losing the viewer that is never quite alienated thanks to Gosling's magnetism and deserving first Oscar nomination.

Ryan Gosling's quietly intense performance in the lead role is the centerpiece of a troubling but watchable 2006 drama called HALF NELSON, a film which sends some troubling mixed messages, some inaccurate information, and, considering the subject matter, never provides the payoff that it should.Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a high school teacher and girls' basketball coach at a Brooklyn high school, who is caught smoking crack in the girls' locker room by one of his students named Dray (Shareeka Epps) and the disturbing directions that this event take the relationship between the two.This is a troubling story on several levels and though I kept watching, found myself squirming for most of the film's running time. I was initially bothered by the fact that after after this event, over 30 minutes of screen time pass before Dan and Dray discuss what happened. Prior to this, Dan acts as if nothing happened and Dray doesn't tell anyone, though the scene where she catches Dan, you can see it in her face that her opinion of the man has seriously altered. She has the power to help the man by reporting what she saw but she doesn't. She actually starts spending more time with him, which is wrong on all kinds of levels and he does nothing to stop it.Another problem with a story that is supposedly about addiction is that we never really see Dan suffer any consequences of his actions. Addiction has consequences and Dan pretty much sails through the running time without any serious consequences. The closest things to consequences the character suffers are a fat lip from a girlfriend and the death of his cat, clearly a result of his neglect.Writer director Ryan Fleck is also not familiar with the effects of smoking crack and snorting cocaine. One of the primary effects of these drugs is paranoia and we see none of this in Dan...he gets high and then likes to get in people's faces instead the isolation that usually occurs with coke addicts. His complete indifference to Dray delivering drugs to his hotel room was also disturbing, which was the just the surface of Dray's issues, but Dan doesn't really attempt to do the right things to help her.The mixed messages and bad behavior glamorized here notwithstanding, Gosling gives a mesmerizing performance that earned him an Oscar nomination and is matched note for note by Epps, who should have received a nomination as well. The shoestring budget on which this indie was clearly shot does add to the realism, but our hero doesn't really change or learn anything and because of this, the film, though watchable, left a bad taste in my mouth.

The plot.Young Dan Dunne teaches history and coaches the girls basketball team at a Brooklyn high school populated primarily by black and Hispanic students. To the chagrin of his superiors, Dan bucks the outlined curriculum of historical facts in favor of the philosophy of historical events, generally discussing the concept of dialectics. As such, he captures the imagination of his students, at least in the classroom. Outside of the classroom, Dan's life is in shambles. He has a distant but cordial relationship with his family. He uses illicit drugs rampantly. Although his former girlfriend Rachel was able to clean up her drug habit, Dan believes that rehab will not work for him. Due to a combination of these issues, he treats women poorly. Thirteen year old Drey is a student in his class and a player on his basketball team. Drey has her own problems. Her parents are divorced, with her father a virtually non-existent figure in her life and her EMT mother generally absent as she is.On and on. People who love this movie buy into the BS Hollywood version of life which never reflects realty. And Gossling is way miscast. he sounds ignorant and unbelievable as a HS teacher. Plus his acting isn't very good. He's basically a one trick pony who can only play one role and this isn't it.In the end you really have to ask yourself why does Hollywood keep on making these unoriginal movies that have no basis in reality. Over and over again.The plot of this film can be seen in about half a dozen other films over the past 6 years. So does that mean once a year we have to be subjected to this garbage?It's insulting.