For all the pageantry and ridiculous choices that seem to run rampant, the Academy Awards still provide an important, necessary opportunity to bring attention to underseen films worthy of larger audiences. A perfect example of this is Half Nelson, a movie that has made less money at the U.S. box office than any other nominated in a major category save for the understandably low grossing Peter O’Toole film Venus. Where the awards change things will surely be the countless people who will hear about Half Nelson due to Ryan Gosling’s richly deserved Best Actor nomination and thereafter give the new DVD release a rental. In my opinion, this is the Academy’s greatest gift to quality cinema - free publicity and, as a result, an added viewership.
Director and co-writer Ryan Fleck’s feature film debut was adapted from a short film he made with editor and co-writer Anna Boden entitled Gowanus, Brooklyn. Both the short and Half Nelson concern inner-city teacher and girls basketball coach Dan Dunne, who successfully struggles to make a difference in the lives of his students but has a much more difficult time balancing his own drug addiction. I can understand anyone’s skepticism in thinking they’ve seen this type of movie before - young, urban white male battles dependence on drugs and, after hitting rock bottom, must somehow kick the habit before it destroys him. The great thing is that Half Nelson feels like none of those seemingly similar films. It’s surprisingly refreshing and unpredictable, with Gosling giving arguably the superior male performance of the year as Dunne.
Instead of building up to a meltdown or paint-by-numbers scenario to initiate sobriety, we’re given a more realistic journey into the difficulty of living with addiction while also trying to maintain a normal existence. We spend time with the character and he’s humanized, both by the impressive script and Gosling’s portrayal, as a flawed young man unable to eliminate his drug problem. He’s self-destructive, but unapologetic. His ruinous existence, highlighted by a mattress without a bed in an altogether decaying apartment, is as much by choice as it is addiction. Any hint of a desire to straighten up his life is masked by the overwhelming urge to use, regardless of how inappropriate the timing might be.
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