Half Nelson

„Half Nelson“ is that rarest of films, one that pulsates as if life is actually unfolding before our eyes. That's no small feat. Its characters feel real, vibrant, hopelessly complicated and, most impressive of all, unpredictable. It even takes a somewhat shopworn genre -- the crusading white teacher providing uplift to his disadvantaged minority students -- and promptly subverts audience expectations. One of the best films of 2006, „Half Nelson“ is also notable for a powerhouse performance by Ryan Gosling. Here he portrays Dan Dunne, a Brooklyn middle-school history teacher and girls' basketball coach of considerable smarts and charm. He is an unconventional educator, urging his students, most of whom are African-American and Latino, to view history as a never-ending push-and-pull of conflicting forces.