Half Nelson (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)For several years now I have been waiting for Ryan Gosling to fulfill the promise that he exhibited in his revolutionary performance in "The Believer." Films have come and gone and in most of them he has been giving good performances ("Murder by Numbers") and problematic ones ("The Notebook") but always with a sense of who he is as an actor and more importantly how he can use his talent and his very being to bring the story of the character he is playing alive.
Now with his Dan Dunne, Gosling has finally fulfilled that promise and his Dunne is complicated (a terrific, human, enabling and encouraging high school teacher who is also a cocaine free-baser), sensitive to a fault, sexually aware...basically a talented, educated, addicted man from a loving family that can't help but fall victim to the baser parts of his nature. He is upright, strong, smart, loving but can't help but call on the appeal of drugs to douse the raging fire of indecision and self-hatred burning deep inside of him. A fire that director/writers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden choose not to explicitly reveal, though after a Dunne family dinner we are perhaps given some hints into Dan Dunne's upbringing and politically committed family and therefore the genesis of his addiction.
Fleck and Boden give us expositional information in a very interesting way here particularly the juxtaposition, the flipping back and forth of the images between the Dunne family dinner (ex-hippie parents, socially and politically committed brother and his girlfriend... eating, drinking bottles and bottles of wine) and Dunne's student and friend Drey's evening home with family: filling small plastic bags with cocaine, chatting about her brother in jail...all polite and ordinary. But honestly: which family situation is best, which family situation is the most comforting for Dan and Drey. This masterful scene goes on for quite a long time and yet Fleck and Boden refuse to comment, refuse to put one family in a better light than the other.
Besides Gosling, there are a couple of actresses here that deserve special note. One, in a small role, though she appeared in both "Six Feet Under" and "Taken," Tina Holmes as Goslings ex and a former addict's very presence on the screen brings a certain weight and gravity to this film and of course to her role. Holmes is all sly, shy smiles, small gestures (she does more with an eye crinkle than do most with long involved scenes) and an inherent honesty and vulnerability that makes your heart hurt. She actually steals her very first scene with Gosling by under acting and the sheer luminosity of her performance.
Secondly, Shareeka Epps as Drey is amazing: she has an old soul, and like Holmes a gravity and a basic honesty that sets her apart from others in her family and the other students in this film. As her jailed brothers friend Frank (the excellent Anthony Mackie) says of Drey's friendship with Dunne: "It is inappropriate." But you know what, as presented and implemented in this film...it isn't. It's strange, it's rife with possible problems, it's audacious for sure but it's also the life preserver that saves both Dunne and Drey... it's their redemption.

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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.

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Lars and the Real Girl Review

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(More customer reviews)Were anyone to suggest that a 'romance' between a guy and a blowup doll could become one of the more sensitive films of the year, it would be cause for derision - that is, before viewing LARS AND THE REAL GIRL. The improbable story was written by Nancy Oliver (the writer of many episodes of the TV series 'Six Feet Under') and directed by Craig Gillespie who gathered a particularly strong cast of actors to present this examination of compassion and love for an emotionally injured young man by small town folks, reminding us that caring for each other is still a highly regarded value.
Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) survived a tough childhood only to become a loner terrified of emotional and tactile contact. He lives in the garage of his deceased parents' home while his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and pregnant sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) live in the main house. Despite Karin's pleadings to be part of the family, Lars prefers to keep to himself. At his job his co-workers include Margo (Kelli Garner), who is more than a little attracted to the quiet and strangely distant Lars, and a fellow who finds ' life-size love dolls' on the internet. Lars orders one of the dolls and when 'Bianca' arrives, Lars finally has a girlfriend to share his loneliness. He introduces Bianca to Gus and Karin who find the situation strange, but at the same time see the happiness in Lars that has been missing. They encourage Lars and Bianca to see a doctor Margo (Patricia Clarkson) who plays along with the concept that Lars finds Bianca real, and encourages Gus and Karin to be supportive. As it ends up the entire little town accepts Bianca and she is introduced to doing good deeds and be a vital part of the town, all through the kindness of people who love the 'delusional' Lars and care only for his happiness. How Lars gradually finds his way into the real world and copes with the understanding of his need for Bianca, the story comes to a tender ending, one that never for a moment feels like a sellout but maintains the dignity of all of the characters in the story.
This is a fine and thoughtful exploration of the needs we all have for understanding, compassion, and acceptance, and while there are some very humorous moments in this well-written story, the overall message is one of gentle love. Ryan Gosling is so fine an actor that he makes this rather complex character understandable and gains our empathy. The supporting cast is equally excellent - especially Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider. Highly recommended viewing, this is a DVD many will want to own for repeated viewings. Grady Harp, April 08

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Sometimes you find love where you'd least expect it. Just ask Lars (Academy Award-Nominee* Ryan Gosling), a sweet but quirky guy who thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in a life-sized doll named Bianca. Lars is completely content with his artificial girlfriend, but when he develops feelings for Margo, an attractive co-worker, Lars finds himself lost in a hilariously unique love triangle, hoping to somehow discover the real meaning of true love. Offbeat and endearing, this romantic comedy takes a fresh look at dating and relationships and dares to ask the question: What's so wrong with being happy?

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The Notebook (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)THE NOTEBOOK is an old-fashioned love story with the topical subject of Alzheimer's Disease thrown in to heighten the Hankie Factor.
The film opens in the present at a genteel, riverside, Southern facility for the long-term care of the aged. An old man, "Duke" (James Garner), is in the habit of reading from a book to an elegant, but chronically confused and distant, lady (Gena Rowlands) of equal antiquity. The story concerns two teenagers during a hot, carefree, South Carolina summer preceding World War II. They are (in extended flashback) Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams).
Noah, working in the local sawmill, is the uneducated son of a dirt-poor father (Sam Shephard). Allie, in these months before she's off to a prestigious New York college, is the only daughter of snobbishly wealthy parents, John (David Thornton) and Anne (Joan Allen) Hamilton.
The book's plot is that hoary one about two young lovers of disparate backgrounds and financial resources, who are subsequently separated by circumstances, objection and obstruction by the wealthy parents, and the subsequent engagement of one to another - in this case, Allie to a devilishly handsome and perfectly decent, rich, young, Army officer wounded during WWII, whom she meets while serving as a volunteer nurse in a Stateside military hospital. Will Noah and Allie ever get back together? That's what Duke's lone listener wants to know.
At midpoint point in this review, and midway through the film, it should be apparent that Duke and his lady friend are Noah and Allie in the winter of their lives. The latter is now suffering from Alzheimer's and only occasionally recognizes her husband, who reads her the story of their courtship over and over in the hope of stimulating her memory.
THE NOTEBOOK is an engaging love story that even Guys might enjoy. I did. James Garner is one of the most beloved screen veterans, and Ryan Gosling as Noah's younger self is totally likable. McAdams as Allie is effervescent and positively radiant. As a period piece, i.e. that part taking place before and immediately after the war, it's sumptuously photographed with contemporary costumes, hairstyles, music, and lots of vintage automobiles. And the sequence shot in the sunken forest amidst the migrating waterfowl was breathtaking in its beauty.
The film does stumble occasionally. While Joan Allen is superb as the witch mother you love to hate, at least until she reveals a secret of her own late in the movie, the John Hamilton character is a virtual non-entity. And I didn't believe his moustache for a second. (It reminded me of the beards in the Civil War epic GETTYSBURG.) Then, in a very brief sequence showing Noah off at war with Patton's Third Army, he barely bats an eye when his best friend is killed. What was that all about? Finally, the Hollywood ending, written by a screenwriter who must have wet him/herself out of giddiness in the melodrama of the moment, was absurd. Under the circumstances, such a passing is a good trick if one can pull it off, but it's sadly not the case, I fear, for most people in Real Life. Just ask Nancy Reagan.
I doubt that THE NOTEBOOK will receive any Oscar nominations, except for perhaps adapted screenplay (from the novel). But the admission price is still money well spent if you're weary of special FX-laden silliness and you want to see a couple of aging pros, Garner and Rowlands, before they, too, leave us. And girls, take an entire box of Kleenex.

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Behind every great love is a great story. Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love during one summer together, but are tragically forced apart. When they reunite 7 years later, their passionate romance is rekindled, forcing one of them to choose between true love and class order.

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