Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is no "hero white teacher saves the poor minority students" uplifter. Instead it's far more complex and challenging, because the white hero teacher, for all his good intentions, is also a drug user, a slave to narcotics on the streets, and conflicted about his job. There is much raw language; some sex, including a scene that mixes sex with violence; and the depiction of a strung-out addict. And the "straight" teachers in the school are jaded and calloused. The kids, especially the girl who learns Mr. Dunne's secret, seem less at-risk than he does. In class, Dunne's (unauthorized) history lessons come from a sharply left-wing stance, with reports on U.S. violations of law and human rights, at home and abroad.
Families can talk about ways this movie goes against clichés, presenting a very clearly flawed main character in the normally idealized role of a teacher-mentor. Who do you think is a healthier person, Dan Dunne or Drey? Dunne's students do seem to be learning from him, but do you really think he should have a job as an educator? What do you think will happen to him? Kids and grownups can talk about the real-life teachers they've admired, and whether any of them seemed like the sorts of characters we see presented onscreen, in Half Nelson or more typical blackboard-jungle dramas.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
With uplifting schoolroom dramas like Freedom Writers, Coach Carter, Stand and Deliver, and Lean on Me cranked out as regularly as homework by the mainstream studios, the indie-made HALF NELSON is something completely different; a non-clichéd story about a troubled, at-risk teacher in an inner-city school and his healing relationship with a young black student -- not the other way around. Too bad the title Dangerous Minds was already taken.
Daniel Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young man considered the "cool" teacher by the mostly minority kids in his Brooklyn-area public school. He coaches them at basketball and he uses games and interesting presentations to enlighten his students about civil rights, Cesar Chavez, the Attica prison riot, U.S. meddling in Latin America, and other histories not covered in the same stale learning plans used by the other teachers (the principal notices and does not approve).
But Daniel is a very troubled man, even though we later find he comes from a "nice" white family (who evidently fired him with left-wing activism from their 1960s-protest days). A stalled writer -- who may not have even wanted to teach in the first place -- he's gotten deep into drugs, and it doesn't help when he finds out his ex-girlfriend is getting married. Daniel is smoking crack in the school's girls' restroom when he's discovered by Drey (Shareeka Epps, who had never acted before), one of his students. She keeps his secret, but the knowledge and guilt forms a sort of bond between them. Daniel -- no stranger to the narcotics-ridden districts -- tries to steer the fatherless Drey away from the influence of her neighbor Frank (Anthony Mackie), a small-time dealer. But it's not easy to take the moral high ground when Dunne buys from the same pusher.
Even Frank is written on a smarter level than you'd expect, not a traditional villain. When Daniel steps over a fine racial line in his relationship with Drey, the drug dealer calls him on the hypocrisy, and has a point.
Half Nelson is a film of shaded characterizations by excellent performers, and the plotline is mostly loose inferences and small moments, not big ones. As opposed to other "'hood" films, there's no gunfire (except a video game), and potential violent confrontations don't go the expected route. The film also doesn't have a very strong ending (though it's clear the two main characters have turned corners in their lives).
Sometimes the edits comparing/contrasting Daniel's and Drey's home lives create confusion about just where we are. Some dialogue (and the quavering camerawork) was improvised, and Mr. Dunne's unconventional lessons were straight from the Web site of filmmaker Ryan Fleck's own scholar-father, Dialectics for Kids. Viewers accustomed to more schematic and livelier plots and traditional black-and-white morality might find these indie touches frustrating and prefer moviedom's less-challenging parade of saintly PG and PG-13 teachers. But as discussion material, Half Nelson offers a lot more.
It's also noteworthy as a serious feature with a young African-American female in a key role. Sadly, this remains rare in movies. Critic Gene Siskel once said that adolescent black girls were Hollywood's most shamefully ignored minority. Some quality dramas on video that do put them in the spotlight are Crooklyn and Akeelah and the Bee.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentA montage-y tangle of limbs in a lyrical sex scene between Daniel and another teacher he takes as a lover. Later in a drug-fueled state he nearly rapes her. Scantily dressed females in drug dens and music-club environments. |
 |
|
||
ViolenceThe main character is struck in the face while nearly committing rape. |
|
|
||
LanguageMuch swearing, in arguments, street talk, and during heated school basketball games (Coach Dunne gets penalized for calling someone an asshole). |
 |
|
||
Message |
|
|
||
Social BehaviorObviously this is a story about good role models who have bad sides, exemplified by Danny, the young teacher who really cares, but is also really messed up on drugs a lot of the time. His fellow administrators seem jaded and apathetic, though they're "straight." The student girl Drey is no angel, but she's smart enough to shy away from violence and destructive lifestyles. A drug dealer flaunts his easy-money earnings. |
 |
|
||
CommercialismSome popular songs on the soundtrack. |
 |
|
||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoThe main character is a drug-addict teacher who claims he can keep it under control, and we get glimpses of langorous crack-smoking parties and drinking in bars. |
 |
|
||
