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Half Nelson

  • 2006
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
94K
YOUR RATING
Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson (2006)
Home Video Trailer from Think Film, Inc
Play trailer2:22
6 Videos
99+ Photos
Coming-of-AgeWorkplace DramaDrama

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.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.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.

  • Director
    • Ryan Fleck
  • Writers
    • Ryan Fleck
    • Anna Boden
  • Stars
    • Ryan Gosling
    • Anthony Mackie
    • Shareeka Epps
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    94K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ryan Fleck
    • Writers
      • Ryan Fleck
      • Anna Boden
    • Stars
      • Ryan Gosling
      • Anthony Mackie
      • Shareeka Epps
    • 235User reviews
    • 167Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 29 wins & 48 nominations total

    Videos6

    Half Nelson
    Trailer 2:22
    Half Nelson
    The Rise of Ryan Gosling
    Clip 4:11
    The Rise of Ryan Gosling
    The Rise of Ryan Gosling
    Clip 4:11
    The Rise of Ryan Gosling
    Half Nelson Scene: Turning Point
    Clip 1:06
    Half Nelson Scene: Turning Point
    Half Nelson Scene: On Slide
    Clip 0:57
    Half Nelson Scene: On Slide
    Half Nelson Scene: Chicken Walk
    Clip 1:17
    Half Nelson Scene: Chicken Walk
    Half Nelson Scene: Jokes
    Clip 1:04
    Half Nelson Scene: Jokes

    Photos107

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    + 101
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    Top cast39

    Edit
    Ryan Gosling
    Ryan Gosling
    • Dan Dunne
    Anthony Mackie
    Anthony Mackie
    • Frank
    Shareeka Epps
    Shareeka Epps
    • Drey
    Jeff Lima
    Jeff Lima
    • Roodly
    Nathan Corbett
    Nathan Corbett
    • Terrance
    Tyra Kwao-Vovo
    • Stacy
    Rosemary Ledee
    • Gina
    Tristan Mack Wilds
    Tristan Mack Wilds
    • Jamal
    • (as Tristan Wilds)
    Bryce Silver
    • Bernard
    Kaela C. Pabon
    • Lena
    Erica Rivera
    • Erika
    • (as Erika Rivera)
    Stephanie Bast
    Stephanie Bast
    • Vanessa
    Eleanor Hutchins
    • Simone
    Sebastian Sozzi
    Sebastian Sozzi
    • Javier
    Tina Holmes
    Tina Holmes
    • Rachel
    Karen Chilton
    Karen Chilton
    • Karen
    Kitty
    • Dave - The Cat
    Starla Benford
    Starla Benford
    • Principal Henderson
    • Director
      • Ryan Fleck
    • Writers
      • Ryan Fleck
      • Anna Boden
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews235

    7.194.1K
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    Featured reviews

    9howard.schumann

    Gritty and sensitive

    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 the 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.
    8EUyeshima

    Unremitting Study of Lives in the Balance with Genuinely Superb Work by the Leads

    Two knockout performances dominate this uncompromising and emotionally visceral indie. Directed and co-written by first-time feature director Ryan Fleck, this 2006 drama pulls no punches and offers no cheap sentiment in the story of two people intractably bonded by their mutually desultory existences - Dan Dunne, a crack-addicted Brooklyn middle school history teacher, and Drey, a 13-year old student in his class burdened by an overworked mother, a brother in prison, and an insinuating drug dealer named Frank. Fleck and co-writer Anna Boden establish Dan's gifts as a teacher almost immediately as the character engages his class with natural ease. It becomes clear that this is not going to be a fish-out-of-water story but a more complex study of a man caught between his passion for teaching and his hopeless need for the next fix.

    Dan's self-defeating effort to separate the duality in his life is what provides the impetus of the plot, as there are no simple explanations offered for his drug-addled life until we catch a glimpse of his emotionally disconnected family later on. Much like what Vera Farmiga achieved in "Down to the Bone", Ryan Gosling dissects his character with textured precision and conviction. He honestly earns our attention and even our compassion despite the selfishness Dan displays at times. Matching Gosling all the way is novice Shareeka Epps, who plays Drey with almost unnerving steadiness. She affectingly conveys the self-protective insulation her character has against a world too ready to use her.

    Together Gosling and Epps remarkably achieve an unexpected symbiosis that makes Dan's and Drey's ongoing struggles palpable. The supporting cast is uniformly strong with effective turns by Anthony Mackie, who shows surprising depth in what could have been a stock villain role as Frank, and by Karen Chilton etching the regret and exhaustion in Drey's mother in just a few brief scenes. Even though the film was done on a miniscule budget, it doesn't feel cheap with particularly strong work found in Andrij Parekh's intentionally bleached-out cinematography. The 2007 DVD offers a nice, unassuming commentary track by Fleck and Boden, but the rest of the extras are not very interesting - a gag reel, three understandably deleted scenes and four extended scenes that really don't add much more insight. However, the film itself is exceptional work.
    7wes-connors

    The Life You Save May Be Your Own

    "Ryan Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a young teacher whose edgy yet brilliant approach to history inspires his inner-city students to think for themselves. But, outside the classroom, Dan's life is spiraling out of control. Wrestling with inner demons and nursing a serious drug habit, Dan finally hits rock bottom - witnessed by one of his troubled students, Drey (Shareeka Epps). With an unlikely friendship built on a shared secret, Dan tries to steer her away from a small-time drug dealer (Anthony Mackie). But no matter which way they turn to survive, their lives will change forever," according to the film's official synopsis.

    "Half Nelson" suffers from too much of the wobbly "hand held" camera technique which, frankly, isn't necessary to make the film look more realistic. Yet, the story, by director Ryan Fleck and partner Anna Boden, and characterizations are good enough to overcome this distraction. The marvelously written screenplay is full of nuances, which serve the main point - showing the interconnecting ways drug addiction can infect the human spirit, when people like those played by Mr. Gosling and Ms. Epps are needed to play much more positive roles in a troubled world.

    Gosling's "Academy Award" nomination for "Best Actor" is clearly understandable; and, Epps could have easily won some "Best Supporting Actress" consideration. At least, the "Independent Spirit Awards" recognized the memorable pair's delicately played teacher/student roles. Everyone else in the cast is excellent, as well. And, the non-melodramatic ending leaves "Half Nelson" full of hope.

    ******* Half Nelson (3/22/06) Ryan Fleck ~ Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Monique Gabriela Curnen
    Kirpianuscus

    honest perspective

    I am teacher. And I saw this film from the angle of my job. As a realistic portrait of a special universe. As honest image of the essence of a work. As one of the most inspired performances of Ryan Gosling. As a great film. About the deep reality behind the appearences. A film about truth. And eulogy of friendship. Short, a teacher, his student and the fight against him. Enough for few questions about near reality and the choices around it.
    8littlemartinarocena

    Awaking To Ryan Gosling

    Ryan Gosling made happen what happens only once every so often. Made me look at what I seen before under a new magnifying light. He took me with him and showed me, with the most astonishing clarity, the complexity of a talented man dragged down by a legacy of good intentions and addiction. We're permitted to visit his family once and we understand what he's fighting with without any weapons. He doesn't blame anyone but he's the result of his own DNA and he knows it. His bright moments, the explanation of what History is for instance, is a glimpse into the man he could actually be, fully. The humanity that Ryan Gosling lends to his character on his darker moments it's as chillingly real as it is moving. The chemistry he establishes with the wonderful Shareeka Epps is as powerful as the one he established with me. I want to meet him, I want to meet Dan and while I was thinking that I realize I know him already. He lives next door to me, he's related to me, I was his friend. This is what superb performances do. They re-awake you.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The film was shot in 23 days and finished one day ahead of schedule.
    • Quotes

      Dan: Change moves in spirals, not circles. For example, the sun goes up and then it goes down. But everytime that happens, what do you get? You get a new day. You get a new one. When you breathe, you inhale and you exhale, but every single time that you do that you're a little bit different then the one before. We're always changing. And its important to know that there are some changes you can't control and that there are others you can.

    • Crazy credits
      The very beginning and very end of the credits are both shown over the sound of Dunn imitating a trumpet playing a tune.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: World Trade Center/Step Up/Scoop/Half Nelson (2006)
    • Soundtracks
      Stars & Sons
      Written and Performed by Broken Social Scene

      Published by Arts & Crafts Music

      Licensed Courtesy of Arts & Crafts Records

      From the album "You Forgot It in People"

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    FAQ20

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 18, 2007 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • StudioCanal International (France)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La otra cara de Nelson
    • Filming locations
      • New York Hall of Science, 111th Street, Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York City, New York, USA(field trip)
    • Production companies
      • Hunting Lane Films
      • Journeyman Pictures
      • Silverwood Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $700,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,697,938
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $53,983
      • Aug 13, 2006
    • Gross worldwide
      • $4,660,481
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 46 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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