September 07, 2006
half nelson
After Shareeka Epps finds Ryan Gosling, her high-school teacher, collapsed in the bathroom with a crack pipe, he eventually asks her to help him up, at which point the film has a choice. If it doesn't show her helping him, it abandons the moment to the purely metaphorical; if it shows the 13-year old girl reaching out and taking his hand or shoulder, it abandons itself to sentimentality. The film navigates this deftly, with a little jump-cut so that her hand is just suddenly there and then he's wincingly upright; it's a small choice but the right one, and indicative of the film's attention to its own risks. Indeed, in many ways the film is about navigating the tepid and silted waters of its own set-up, which it does with parallel care at almost every juncture. Other best thing about movie: even as it manages to get a name act to contribute a budget sondtrack, it stages Broken Social Scene as nothing but numbing sentiment for self-pitying hipsters.
Posted by jane at September 7, 2006 04:47 PM | TrackBack