Film Recommendation

When my husband suggested that we take some friends to see the movie Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gossling, over the weekend, my initial response was, "That's not a movie about wrestling is it?" He had heard a rave review on the radio the other day, and though the rest of us knew next to nothing about the movie, we all decided to take a chance to go and see it. It ended up that our car was divided on the way home, my friend Andrew and I LOVED it! However, Kevin and Andrew's wife MaryEllen were not so sure.

The movie is actually about an inner city middle school history teacher and girls basketball coach, Dan Dunne and his severe drug problem, as well as his unlikely friendship with one of his students- a young woman named Drey. Dunne is a man torn between his addiction and his belief that he can make a difference in the lives of young people, specifically in the life of Drey-- a person on the fringe of falling into the world of drugs herself. Dunne teaches his students an untraditional, yet seemingly effective approach to understanding history through the philosophical theory of dialectics (opposing, yet interdependent forces). Dunne is likeable, intelligent, and charismatic, but at the same time heartbreaking and frustrating.

As the viewer, I felt hope drain out of me as I watched his addiction take over more and more of his life and slowly suffocate his abilities and dreams. He is the essence of the Lutheran belief that all people are simultaneously saint and sinner. As a teacher, Dunne is a saint-- you can almost visibly see the positive impact he has on his students. As a person, Dunne is a disaster-- making hurtful, life-threatening decisions over and over again, even when he tries to will himself to do otherwise. What seems to be even worse is that Dunne knows what he is doing to himself, but is powerless to change it. Yet, Dunne's friendship with Drey plays an essential role in keeping him from spinning completely out of control.

As it turns out, the film was aptly named because it is about wrestling, or at least the idea of the human dialectic. And as the viewer you are forced to wrestle the fact that the stories of suffering depicted in this film reflect the real life experiences of people-- the messy, agonizing, gut-wrenching reality of drugs and self-destruction, of families and broken relationships, of poverty and racism, of the human potential to choose both good and evil.

So it is not a light film by any means, but it is a challenging one that I believe is worth watching. (As a warning, the scenes where Dunne is using drugs are graphic in nature.) At the same time, this is also a film about the glimmer of redemption and hope that we can offer each other in times of hopelessness and despair. I would also recommend if you see the movie to go with people who are up for a discussion afterwards, because it will most definitely inspire conversation.