HALF NELSON

-By Kevin Lally

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The gifted young actor Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, The Believer, Murder by Numbers) elevates Half Nelson from a project fraught with credibility issues into a surprisingly persuasive character study of a Brooklyn junior-high teacher fighting personal demons as he tries to enlighten his underprivileged students. The notion of an idealistic educator whose crack addiction never seems to dim his classroom charisma may strain belief, but Gosling, with the intensity and complexity of the great Method actors of the '50s, makes you accept the conceit of debuting feature director Ryan Fleck and his writing partner, Anna Boden.

Gosling's Dan Dunne is a maverick history teacher who dispenses with the mandated curriculum and challenges his pupils to think about the continuum between their own struggles with poverty and racism and the controversial movements and watershed moments of the past. "History is change over time," he tells them, opening their easily distracted minds to concepts like dialectics. Dunne's informal, nonjudgmental, colloquial style and personal magnetism win him eager converts, but outside the classroom he's far from an ideal adult role model.

Dunne's flaws become manifestly clear when, after coaching a girls' basketball game, he retreats to the empty locker room to smoke some crack. As he nods off, his 13-year-old student Drey (Shareeka Epps) enters the room, having been stood up with no ride home. Drey is surprisingly unruffled by the sight of her teacher in such a demoralized state; it's clear that this young girl has already seen her share of unsavory situations. Drey lives with an overworked mother (we never see her father), and has a dubious guardian of sorts in neighborhood drug dealer Frank (Anthony Mackie), who feels a debt to the family since Drey's older brother went to prison for him.

Curiously, Drey and Dunne's potentially ruinous locker-room encounter opens up a closer relationship between the two. ("One thing doesn't make a man," she sagely observes about his crack addiction.) Dunne starts to take more interest in the girl's home life and future potential, and takes the rash step of warning Frank-his own pusher-to stay away from her. Things seem to be pointing toward a melodramatic climax, but the film is more interested in the growing attachment of its two unlikely friends, while avoiding easy fixes for either character.

Apart from his effectiveness as a teacher, Gosling doesn't romanticize Dunne; despite his ideals, he's a weak man in a losing battle with drugs. In one scene, we get a glimpse of the privileged family he seems to be rebelling against just for the sake of rebellion; unfocused in his anger, he's as lost in his way as many of his students. The mercurial Gosling ably navigates the many contradictions of the character: his compassion and selfishness, his intelligence and foolhardiness, his hipness and naiveté.

Young discovery Epps is also a revelation. Projecting wisdom well beyond her years (even while sucking an ever-present Tootsie Pop), she establishes a poignant rapport with Gosling that keeps you hoping their bond will last well beyond the movie's open-ended final moments. Epps played the same role in the 2004 short, Gowanus, Brooklyn, that was the movie's first incarnation, and one hopes this appealingly self-possessed novice actress finds more movie opportunities.

Mackie, star of Spike Lee's She Hate Me and a featured player in Million Dollar Baby, also lends complexity to what could have been a standard-issue heavy, adding touches of warmth to the understated menace of the drug-dealing Frank. Karen Chilton also registers strongly in her few scenes as Drey's overburdened mother.

Half Nelson (the title a wrestling term evoking the immobilizing hold of Dunne's addiction) also gains tremendous authenticity from its unadorned location filming in Brooklyn. The documentary-like style makes a perfect fit for performances that find truth in a most unusual student-teacher relationship.

-Kevin Lally