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Half Nelson.

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Half Nelson

Produced by Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell, Anna Boden; directed by Ryan Fleck; written by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden; cinematography by Andrij Parekh; edited by Anna Boden; production design by Elizabeth Mickle; costume design by Erin Benach; original music by Broken Social Scene; starring Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Karen Chilton, Tina Holmes, and Monique Gabriela Curnen. Color, 106 mins. A Think Films Release.

The subtly performed and scripted Half Nelson is a striking debut from director and screenwriter Ryan Fleck and his cowriter Anna Boden. A low-budget, realistically shot independent film, Half Nelson is set in a seedy, nongentrified part of Brooklyn (near the Gowanus Canal) defined by abandoned lots overrun with weeds, desolate night streets, and the claustrophobic bare apartment of its lead character, marked by a barred window. The film centers on the drug-addicted Dan Dunne (the gifted Ryan Gosling), a politically left-leaning junior high school history teacher, and the friendship he develops with a thirteen-year-old African American student Drey (Shareeka Epps), who plays on the basketball team Dan coaches.

Drey's mixture of sharp-eyed independence and innocence first expresses itself when she discovers Dan, after hours, lying on the bathroom floor in the girls' locker room, a crack pipe in his hand. She doesn't turn him in to the school authorities but instead gradually builds a genuine bond with Dan. Wise-beyond-her-years, with a slightly street-hard persona, Drey loves her caring exhausted mother who works double shifts at night, misses her brother who is serving time in Riker's for drug dealing, and feels estranged from her father who is never around. Despite Drey's having a bit of a crush on Dan and, in a half-conscious way, desiring him...