'Half Nelson' is a full success

Plenty of gritty-looking movies — some good, others bundles of cliché — have been made about teachers who take a stand. Finding themselves in schools forsaken by society, where students are lost causes, they rise to the occasion and tough-love the kids into success and self-esteem.

"Half Nelson" is not like those movies. In its political stance, its attitude toward race and its desire to create characters who are more than functionaries in an inspirational equation, it stakes out artistic ground while ensuring that it won't become any sort of mainstream hit.

ThinkFilm 'Half Nelson' Four out of five stars The verdict: A lesson in subtlety Director: Ryan Fleck Starring: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders Run time: 107 minutes Release date: August 11, 2006 Rating: Rated R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality. On the web Official movie site Rate 'Half Nelson'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Ryan Gosling, who has been very good in mediocre movies and finally gets a worthy vehicle here, stars as Dan Dunne, whose dirtlike name suits him. Bleary-eyed, unshaven and wearing slept-in clothes, he stands in front of the classroom looking like the bottom of the teacher-applicant barrel. What he's saying, though, is something else entirely: Talking of dialectics and turning points, he ignores the school-approved curriculum in an attempt to show his pupils that they are participants in history and in charge of their lives.

Dunne's own life argues against that lesson. On his off hours, he's a drug addict who knows he's destroying himself and can't muster the strength to care.

With Gosling in the part and sympathetic director Ryan Fleck behind the camera, this alone would be enough for a compelling film. But Dunne's character is balanced by another whose situation inverts his. Where he started with advantages and has found himself near self-destruction, his student Drey is a teen who, despite growing up in the worst circumstances, has a seemingly unkillable spark inside her.

Shareeka Epps, the newcomer who plays Drey, has a sly charm that is instantly recognizable to anyone who has known a teenager who can't quite hide her good nature behind a sullen mask. She's often stifling a half-smile; her eyes are curious even when drooping lids say she's seen it all. When Drey stumbles across Dunne hiding, too high to stand up, after a basketball game, they bond immediately if uncomfortably.

Their unfolding friendship has just enough conventional drama that it's easy to imagine what a studio would have done with the material. Fleck, on the other hand (with co-screenwriter Anna Boden) touches lightly on conflicts instead of hammering them home. While there are plenty of morals to be found in the story, he doesn't dictate how viewers should interpret them. Like Dan Dunne in front of the chalkboard, Fleck would rather get an audience's brain in gear than tell it where to go.