Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
metta1
The sentence I copied from the glowing number one review which I pasted below says it all. "Although the premise of the film is somewhat implausible, Gosling's performance of the charming but flawed teacher is completely credible"
Ian
(Flash Review)Watch on gritty celluloid how a deep thinking guy "Dan", with a substance abuse problem while working as a white teacher in an inner city school, forms an unexpected bond with one of his students "Drey". There is an scene where Dan is found very vulnerable by Drey and she assists rather than judges him. They have a solid understanding of each other's life's hurdles and he feels the need to protect her from a bad slice of life. How will things play out? Will he overcome his own substance abuse challenges? This was a fairly subtle and calm drama for the subject matter and it tended to lack enough tension to be enthralling as found in Al Pacino's Panic In Needle Park, which this resembled. Yet Gosling and the female lead did a great job with a natural everyday portrayal of living with their circumstances. The film had lots of soft focus, shallow depth of field and organic cinematography. Solid but I personally needed a bit more drama.
moonspinner55
Stark and riveting, "Half Nelson" proves we don't need reality entertainment: this non-glossy, non-'Hollywood' drama seems real enough. Junior high school history teacher and girls' basketball coach Ryan Gosling crawls into a crack-clouded fog once he gets home; one of his inner-city students knows his secret, yet she is harboring troubles of her own. Gosling is inherently charismatic and intrinsically smart while working from a gut instinct, resulting in a performance that is constantly surprising, always unpredictable; as an actor, he is so focused (and brave) that we don't recoil from him even as his character is turned inside-out, showing us behavior that is hardly pretty. Supporting cast is equally strong, aided by an outstanding screenplay from Anna Boden and director Ryan Fleck, who shies away from both sentimentality and melodramatic sensationalism. "Half Nelson" is so good, critics run the risk of overpraising it. It is mainly a quiet movie, a character study in a lower key, and yet what we absorb from it can last for days. *** from ****
Leila Cherradi
Ryan Gosling is soooo... I don't know what words to use, so I'd rater say : look again and again and again at everything he does (and doesn't) do : take the expressions in his eyes, the way he chuckles his head at times.No big visual effects, no Hollywoodian music, serve well this healthy movie. Makes it far more real. Touches far more deeply. Though two things I missed : a non shaking camera and some pretty light (as happens for one minute in the movie). Anyway I would follow the character in his creepy apartment... I love him!
