Half Nelson is about a history teacher in an inner city NY school who is somehow ever so cool because he really engages children and all the other teachers are so hopeless that it can be no surprise that these kids are so disinterested in everything. If only we had more teachers like that. How does he do it ? Well, he makes history really interesting by talking about change, and big ideas clashing, and other hackneyed soundbites all the time but they never seem to learn any facts or events because this would be way too boring. He is also so cool that he has to walk around all day with a really bemused look on his face, you know, this look of the only sane person in a sea of fools. You also need to understand that when he is not heroically helping children, he is a drug addict and gets up to all sorts of things that are usually considered as not good for you. You will wonder how he can sustain this habit and his teaching at the same time, but I guess that this is actually the only part of the film that makes some sense because his lessons never look as if he has done any preparation for them, but that he rather makes them up as he goes along - lots of phoneyism and no substance. Now, he also gets to meet this really street wise black girl who really takes care of him although he offers her nothing much in return and there is no obvious explanation why she seems to like this idiot who is not even particularly nice to her. According to some other reviews of this film, they somehow seem to help each other but this is strange because nothing in their lives is going anywhere. If you like that sort of thing and films without plot, dialog, likable characters or anything of interest to speak of, then this film is for you, otherwise best to avoid.
Review of Half Nelson
