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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, Subtitled
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young inner-city junior high school teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Rejecting the standard curriculum in favor of an edgier approach, Dan teaches his students how change works - on both a historical and personal scale - and how to think for themselves.Though Dan is brilliant, dynamic, and in control in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. His disappointments and disillusionment have led to a serious drug habit. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), catches him getting high after school. From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship. Despite the differences in their ages and situations, they are both at an important intersection. Depending on which way they turn - and which choices they make - their lives will change.
"A compelling drama that establishes Ryan Gosling as one of the finest actors of his generation." Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Superb drama from New York-based filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden." Ken Fox, TV Guide
"...an opportunity to marvel, once again, at the dazzling talent of Ryan Gosling..." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"The movie lives in its small details." Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"Gosling excels at playing contradictory characters like this one...a remarkably subtle performance." Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club
Editor's Note
IN THEATERS AUGUST 11, 2006 Set in Brooklyn, New York, HALF NELSON is about an unlikely friendship that flourishes between a teacher and one of his most troubled students.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Half Nelson - DVD By: Alexandra Calamari - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 2/22/2007 5:44 PM | | When it comes to films about teaching, the formula is pretty standard: eccentric teacher takes the delinquents nobody wanted, breaks all the standard rules of education and changes their lives by believing in them. And that's exactly what happens in Half Nelson - except that the inspirational teacher is a closet crack head....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 5/27/2008 |
| Running Time: 107 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 17859 | | UPC: 00043396178595 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2006) | | | Sundance Film Festival, Ryan Fleck, Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"HALF NELSON offers an opportunity to marvel, once again, at the dazzling talent of Ryan Gosling for playing young men as believable as they are psychologically trip-wired." -- Grade: A 08/18/2006 p.113-114Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Films Of The Year" -- "[A] sad/hopeful, hauntingly open-ended study in the rise and fall of middle-class social idealism." 12/29/2006 102 Film Comment
Ranked #7 in Film Comment's "20 Best Films Of 2006." 01/01/2007 p.36 USA Today
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[T]he movie skillfully avoids sentimental traps to become one of last year's significant sleepers." 02/16/2007 p.3E Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] masterclass in screen acting....The kind of story that steals into your bones and echoes long after the lights come up..." 05/01/2007 p.30 Sight and Sound
"[T]he newcomer Shareeka Epps displays a poise and stillness as Drey that make possible Gosling's more free-falling moments." 04/01/2007 47-48 Variety 9 of 10
A terrific performance by Ryan Gosling is the chief but hardly sole reason to embrace "Half Nelson," a first narrative feature by director Ryan Fleck, who wrote it with Anna Boden. Sympathetic but toughly observed pic avoids melodrama in the potentially hyperbolic tale of a white Brooklyn middle-school teacher losing his own battle with drugs while trying to mentor an African-American student whose family has been torn apart by drug dealing. Avoiding rote inspirational notes as well as boyz-in-the-hood violence, scrupulously low-key drama nonetheless builds to a powerful impact...The alert intelligence Gosling has shown in disparate roles from "The Believer's" neo-Nazi teen to "The Notebook's" ornery romantic is put to ideal use here. - Dennis Harvey
Reel.com 8 of 10
Fleck establishes a keen sense of place; Drey's distressed New York neighborhood practically becomes another character in the film, but it's in directing his actors that he truly excels. Young Epps is moving as this tough little girl, so in danger of being swallowed by the trouble around her, while Mackie is alternately charming and menacing as a man who probably does think he's doing Drey a favor by pushing her toward dealing. But the star of the piece is definitely Gosling: so sweet, so smart, so troubled, and so much the jerk. There's no vanity in the actor as Dan gives in to his demons. It's an awesome performance in a film that's not always easy to watch, but never less than watchable. - Pam Grady
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