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Half Nelson (2006)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
11 August 2006 (USA)
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Tagline:
Secrets don't let go.
Plot:
An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Drugs
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Classroom
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Single Mother
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Crack
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History Teacher
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar.
Another 22 wins
&
21 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(143 articles)
Is Idris Elba Playing Jimmy Stewart To Thomas Ikimi's Hitchcock? Fantastic New Poster Art For Legacy Says Yes.
(From Twitch. 27 November 2009, 9:51 AM, PST)
Focus Features Announces 2010 Release Dates
(From Slash Film. 12 November 2009, 10:55 PM, PST)
(From Twitch. 27 November 2009, 9:51 AM, PST)
Focus Features Announces 2010 Release Dates
(From Slash Film. 12 November 2009, 10:55 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Gritty and sensitive
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Ryan Gosling | ... | Dan Dunne |
 | Jeff Lima | ... | Roodly |
| Shareeka Epps | ... | Drey |
 | Nathan Corbett | ... | Terrance |
| Tyra Kwao-Vovo | ... | Stacy |
| Rosemary Ledee | ... | Gina |
| Tristan Wilds | ... | Jamal |
| Bryce Silver | ... | Bernard |
| Kaela C. Pabon | ... | Lena |
| Erica Rivera | ... | Erika (as Erika Rivera) |
 | Stephanie Bast | ... | Vanessa |
 | Eleanor Hutchins | ... | Simone |
| Sebastian Sozzi | ... | Javier |
| Tina Holmes | ... | Rachel |
 | Karen Chilton | ... | Karen |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
USA:106 min (Sundance Film Festival)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
USA:R |
Singapore:M18 |
Portugal:M/16 |
UK:15 |
Australia:MA |
Sweden:7 |
Ireland:15A |
Finland:K-13 |
New Zealand:R16 |
Germany:12 |
Norway:10 (TV rating) |
Norway:11
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The Dan Dunne character was originally written to be in his mid-thirties. However, the filmmakers changed this to accommodate Ryan Gosling's age. Gosling was 25 years old at the time of filming.
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Quotes:
Dan:
[after watching Mario Savio's speech about The Machine] What is this machine that he's walking about? It's keeping us down, what is it?
Jamal: Like, robots and stuff, right?
Dan: Umm... it could be robots. It could be robots, but let's say it's a metaphor. He's saying this machine is keeping you down. Now, what is that? What keeps us from being free? Ms. Drey?
Drey: Prisons.
Dan: Absolutely. Absolutely, prisons. OK? Prisons are definitely a part of it. What else?
Terrence: White!
Dan: White is definitely a part of it. The Man.
Student: The school.
Dan: The school, exactly. The whole-the whole education system is part of the machine. What else?
Student: Aren't you the machine then?
[...]
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Jamal: Like, robots and stuff, right?
Dan: Umm... it could be robots. It could be robots, but let's say it's a metaphor. He's saying this machine is keeping you down. Now, what is that? What keeps us from being free? Ms. Drey?
Drey: Prisons.
Dan: Absolutely. Absolutely, prisons. OK? Prisons are definitely a part of it. What else?
Terrence: White!
Dan: White is definitely a part of it. The Man.
Student: The school.
Dan: The school, exactly. The whole-the whole education system is part of the machine. What else?
Student: Aren't you the machine then?
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)
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Soundtrack:
Soho Dancer
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FAQ
What is a Half Nelson?Why is the film titled after a wrestling move?
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more (151 total)
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Set in Brooklyn, New York where he currently lives, Ryan Fleck's first full-length feature, Half Nelson, is a gritty, sensitive, and emotionally harrowing film that meticulously avoids the inspirational clichés of many teacher-student films and the obligatory violence of films set in the ghetto. The title is derived from a wrestling move in which you turn an attacker's strength back on him. In the case of Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling), an idealistic eight-grade history teacher in an inner city school, he turns the attack on himself, inspiring his students by day and drugging himself at night with crack cocaine.
Dan is a well-liked teacher and basketball coach whose parents (Deborah Rush and Jay O. Sanders) were liberal activists during the 60s and 70s, participating in protests against the Vietnam War but have now substituted alcoholism for political passion. Like his parents, he wants to make an impact on the world but is disillusioned with the current political climate and, out of frustration and fatigue, (like many on the Left today) has drifted into a self-induced stupor. Believing in social justice and that society can be changed through education, he teaches history, to the chagrin of the school's administrator, in the form of Hegelian dialectic, showing that change results from a clash of opposites.
Dan shows his students videos of seminal events from the last fifty years such as the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that paved the way for desegregation of the schools, clips from the civil rights movement, and Mario Savio speaking on the Berkeley campus during the Free Speech Movement. To its credit, the events in the film do not occur in a political vacuum but attempts to tie in the failed protests of the Left to Dan's drug habit are not entirely persuasive. Dunne's life begins to spiral out of control when one of his students, thirteen-year old Drey (Shareeka Epps), discovers him in the girl's bathroom passed out from ingesting cocaine. Instead of becoming frightened or angry, Drey brings him water and helps him to gradually come down from his high.
Drey comes from a family in which her mother works a double shift and is rarely at home, her father is out of town, and her older brother is in prison for selling drugs, but she is mature and street-wise beyond her age. She promises to keep his secret and both find that their unlikely friendship satisfies an emotional need that Drey cannot find with her classmates and Dan cannot find with other adults. He is dating a fellow teacher (Monique Curnen) but his behavior with her is erratic and his political speeches and drug habits soon turn her off. A former girl friend from his period of rehabilitation (which he said didn't work for him) tells him that she is now getting married which pushes him further into a downward trajectory.
The emotional highlight of the film is a confrontation between Dunne and Frank (Anthony Mackie), a suave drug dealer and associate of Drey's older brother who recruits Drey to be his collector. While Dan wants to steer Drey in the right direction, he is hardly a role model and the results, while promising, are inconclusive. Although its premise of the film is somewhat implausible, Gosling's performance of the charming but flawed teacher is completely credible, so nuanced and touching that we root for him in spite of his capacity for self-destruction. Shareeka Epps is equally convincing in her powerfully understated performance as his tough but sensitive young friend. Co-written by Anna Boden and supported by an outstanding original score by Broken Social Scene, Half Nelson "stands and delivers" one of the finest films of the year.