Half Nelson

This is an independent film starring Ryan Gosling as an inner city teacher who balances his desire to help the kids he's teaching with his own cocaine addiction. I thought this was a really smart film. One reason is because it turns the cliche of the inner city-teacher/student relationship on its head. Here it is the teacher who is struggling, and he turns to a friendship with a student for help. The student is not seen as a victim of poverty or racism, but as a real person who struggles with her own home life as the child of a single mother and with a brother who is in jail. She develops a friendship with the teacher after she finds out his secret.

Another reason this is a smart film is that it gets to the heart of the cycle of addiction. Ryan Gosling's character is not a heroic or particularly likeable character. He is an addict and he's pretty pig-headed too. He won't follow the approved teaching curriculum, he's completely absorbed in his own political beliefs, and has problems in relationships with women. But the viewer sympathizes with him because the stark cinemaography shows his loneliness in his sparsely decorated apartment, and the darkness of the bars where he meets his only friends to get high.

Is this a positive film? The film is ambiguous on several points. One point is on whether or not the teacher really cares about teaching or whether his teaching is simply another coping mechanism. Another point regards to the ending. Without hopefully giving too much away, the film ends with the teacher still struggling with his addiction. Can the student he forms a friendship with, help him to get on the road to recovery? Or is this friendship strong enough to overcome his addiction? Can he find a support group to help him overcome? I can admire that the script allows the viewer to be smart enough to make up their mind what will happen with these characters. Ryan Gosling's performance is very nicely underplayed. He looks dead inside because of his addiction, yet shows a glimmer of hope when he's around his students.

The teacher's struggle mirrors my struggle and anyone's struggle with sin. None of us is strong enough on our own to overcome our own appetites for self-destruction and self-delusion. That's why we need a savior in Jesus Christ. We need each other to help us overcome our own selfishness. And we need to find something to live for beyond ourselves.

All in all, I recommend this film to people who like strong character-driven dramas.