It’s nighttime, and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene asks me for a light. “Watch this,” he tells me. He cups his hands around the cigarette in his mouth and the glow of the flame hits his scruffy face. “It’s just like that,” he says, handing back the lighter.

This cryptic display is how Drew describes “Half Nelson,” a new film starring Canada’s own Ryan Gosling. While Drew doesn’t appear in the movie, his band contributed much of the music.

And his strange description? It’s actually quite accurate. “Half Nelson” is a film that sneaks up on you, glows affectingly, and then quickly fades away.

It centres on Gosling’s character, Dan Dunne, a teacher at an urban junior high school. While most viewers would groan at the thought of another “Stand and Deliver” or “Dangerous Minds,” “Half Nelson” takes things in a much different direction — Dunne has a serious drug habit.

After being discovered on the edge of consciousness by a student (Drey, played by Shareeka Epps), the two begin to form an unusual friendship, each trying to protect the other from the evil in their lives.

While the film’s main focus is Gosling and a provocative look at his life as an unconventional addict, writer/director Ryan Fleck also slips in many racial undertones. Through interspersed clips of Dunne’s students describing important moments in the Civil Rights movement, audiences are gently prodded to think beyond the film’s immediate confines and look at the current state of various racial issues in America (and Canada, for that matter).

It’s a jarring film, with a performance that puts Gosling amongst the finest young (and serious) actors today. And while you may think the film’s over once that flame has gone out, they’ll be a trace left over — its images and its arguments will stick with you for weeks afterwards.






Related Stories: