Teaching is a demanding profession-one where you can't but help dredging out your soul from time to time and taking a hard look at it. It pushes you to want to do superhuman things some times. At the same time it makes you aware that despite all your good intentions that there are times when 'you' can't do anything. However,whether the story of a teacher's life needs to run like a scary chronicle of a dispirited junkie is highly debatable. Yes, it is a 'real' and 'authentic' story, but how much can we be pulled into wallowing in the mess and helplessness of a teacher, was a question I asked myself at various points in the film.
'Half-Nelson' made one mildly scornful of the protagonist. If that was the intention of the movie - it is a job well done. I suspect though, that the movie is meant to be a canvas of indulgent languidness - where one is supposed to soak in and even sympathize with the fogginess of the teacher. The non-fussy editing and the fact that there aren't many sub-layers to the story bolsters this apparent intention. The "friendship" between Drey (Shareeka Epps who was outstanding) and Dan (Ryan Gosling, the teacher) was beautifully sketched. They knew each other's most vulnerable sides- which they held with great dignity. It was refreshing to see that these vulnerabilities were not hacked to death with analysis and major soul-searching conversations - a risk that many teacher-student type movies (why even real-life situations) face.The dichotomy in Dan's life - where he passionately and consummately employs dialectics as a pillar of his pedagogy but uses none of it to reflect upon his life, came through quite neatly. On the whole, the film seemed to thrive on the understatedness of the mess that is the life of Dan and Drey.
Being a teacher myself, I could not but help being greatly involved with the film than just being a curious member of the audience. While I was able to appreciate the craft and the acting , the story itself had something to it that served as a thorn under my skin. Maybe because I was questioning the dramatizing (however understated it was) of a teacher's dysfunctionality. Maybe because I think we cannot afford to make 'art' of this dysfunctionality, the silver-lining end to the story notwithstanding.
Films do play a significant role in making us aware of realities that we ourselves do not and cannot experience. However, when 'reality' is portrayed as 'art' one has to look at it discerningly because Pathos - gritty or soppy is often the excuse.It almost is - in 'Half-Nelson'.