It was a pleasant surprise to see Picturehouse filled for this movie. I’ve been a mini fan of Ryan Gosling ever since I watched him Murder by Numbers. And he and co-star Rachel McAdams (whom he’s currently dating) practically elevated the mush-flick The Notebook from dudsville to surprisingly watchable. I even teared! Anyway …

With the buzz surrounding this movie and an Oscar nod for Gosling, I went in with pretty high expectations. The movie took it’s time to play out, with steely, nuanced performances from the cast. What I really liked about Half Nelson is that it never once lapsed into sentimentality. Forget those do-gooder teacher type movies. You know the ones where the teacher talks tough and empowers hopeless inner-city kids before he finally leads them to winning the state ice-hockey championship or spelling contest.

In Half Nelson, it’s the guide, history teacher Dan Dunne (Gosling), who’s lost. Mired in his own disillusionment and failed aspirations, crack and his students are the only things keeping Dan going. He strikes up a friendship with Drey (Shareeka Epps) after she accidentally catches him stoned and shivering in the school bathroom’s stall. But it’s a friendship her family friend Frank (Anthony Mackie) frowns upon, and he tells her that “base heads have no friends.” Incidentally, Frank is no angel himself. He’s the local drug dealer who had a part to play in Drey’s brother’s imprisonment.

It’s these fluid, underlying subtleties that give the film its realism and resonance.  As Dan teaches his students how the Hegelian principle of dialectics – opposing forces that push through changes - is the essence of history, we see how it’s also fleshed out in the movie: White man vs black girl, teacher vs student, freedom vs enslavement, right vs wrong, idealism vs. cynicism. No set parameters were drawn for these issues. The characters, their actions and what they represent are at once contradictory and perfectly human.

 I’m not hedging my bet that Gosling would be winning this year’s Oscars as I can safely say he has more nominations coming his way. His soulful, tortured Dan anchors this thoughtful, sensitive film. It reminds us the sometimes invisible line between hope and despair is really what we choose to make out of it.