2006, USA
Drama
It’s hard for a teacher to get through to a student when he has a crack pipe in his hand. But in the city, kids grow up faster than they should, and a teacher with an addiction is more of a disappointment than a shock. Director Ryan Fleck and his writing partner Anna Boden present this classroom drama of a teacher who does not always practice what he preaches.
It is obvious that Dan connects with his students. He slips in and out of slang that comes off as more funny than false, though he speaks earnestly. A skinny white fella, he teaches history to a class of inner-city black junior high kids. Fortunately there is no sense of Dangerous Minds or similar After School Special-type movies where the teacher tames an unruly pack of city kids who don’t appreciate their educational opportunities. Nor is the teacher completely changed by the lessons learned from his children. There is conflict and sharing, but each step is harder than the next.
Portrayed by sleepy-lidded Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) with frantic confusion thinly masked as an overworked educator, Dan attempts to open his kids’ eyes with a new method of teaching: dialectics. It is the concept that life is represented through opposites, and these opposites will clash and create change. He uses this concept to discuss civil rights and turning points that have occurred throughout history.
What he fails to see is his own turning point. Falling further down his own rabbit hole, the only root he can grasp is his class. They ground him and present a focus, though his drug addiction often blurs the image. Initially his drug use is filmed peripherally, but as his addiction worsens, the images are hard to avoid.
Dan shares a special bond with student Drey (newcomer Shareeka Epps), who has a crush on her damaged teacher despite holding an anger for his habits. With an absent father, brother in prison and mother pulling double shifts, Dan gives her the attention she craves. She is the sort of shy, intelligent kid that brings worth to the rare smile.
Drey has managed to sidestep all possible troubles, but faces uncertainty when her mentor wags his finger against drug use with one hand while slipping a deal with the other. Constantly concerned with Drey’s well-being, Dan doesn’t realize the irony of asking her family friend, a drug dealer, to leave her alone. His most sobering moment comes from a confrontation with this merchant of his weakness, forcing him to question his place in the scheme of things.
The film practices what he teaches, despite Dan failing in this regard. Opposites are represented through the student-teacher dichotomy, though the student seems to have a better grasp at right from wrong. However, she is only 13, and still impressionable. Why swim against the current when everyone else is going with the flow? Contradictory stereotypes are also represented through the well-behaved city students and the drug-addled educator. The students are ready to learn, but it’s hard to teach when you’re distracted by your nose bleed and nervous energy.
Fleck and Boden carefully compose a world of contradictions that depend on each other. Gosling and Epps are excellent in their portrayal of a relationship of which everybody justly questions the appropriateness, yet despite their problems, they can see through the chaos to the other’s better self. Conflicts are inevitable in history, but the ability to meet halfway is a great achievement.