Ones a mainstream romance flick while the other is an indie hippy cocaine-laden film. Two movies on the opposite ends of the spectrum. So what do they have in common? A talented London-born, Canadian lad, Ryan Gosling (not to be confused with another England born, soccer player of similar name, Dan Gosling).
The Notebook is a film adapted from a 1996 novel of the same name, and stars Ryan Gosling as Noah Calhoun and Rachel McAdams as Allie Nelson. The Notebook was and will be on the lips of many girls for a good part of this decade. But I only watched it in a sleepy hour of 2008 for the first time. Yes, you heard me right, for the first time! (cue mocking laughter.)
You must be wondering where the heck was I. I must have been trapped in a time warp or something, or maybe I just don’t like to buy into hype. As they say, the more you expect, the more you would be left disappointed.
Since everyone loved it, only the bad points are noteworthy. I don’t know why, but I have a dislike for really old people in films as lovers (recalls the closing scene in Love Me if You Dare). Slap me for that, but I think the older version of the couple portrayed by James Garner and Gena Rowlands had way too much air time and for me, spoiled the film a little. And then there is the other movie I watched the day before.
Half Nelson is an award winning piece written and directed by Ryan Fleck. Being a typical indie film with low budget, it had to have plenty of substance to garner nominations from the Academy Awards, Sundance Film Festival and winning in many other film festivals including the French based, Deauville Film Festival.
In this film, Ryan Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a high skool history teacher and basketball coach by day, and a drug addict by night. He isn’t your model prim and proper teacher, in fact he looks out of place in that black-centric high skool. Plenty could be said just by looking at him. Those purposeful shades that covers his addict eyes, that beard that gives him more edge, to cover the fact that he was a geek.
In fact, he is still a geek at heart. His casio databank watch, his pick up skills in the bar and his ex-girlfriend says it all. Being an drug addict, he smokes freebase everywhere, including the skool. So one day he is caught in the act by one of his history students/basketball players, Dre, played by acting debutant, Shareeka Epps. The story goes on and they form an unlikely bond and help each other out in life.
And then there is the music from Broken Social Scene which was cleverly placed all over the film to give a great feel. No wonder people were raving about them when they were here during the Mosaic Music Festival. Damn, I must have missed out on quite a bit there.
I’m signing off. here’s a quote from Half Nelson.
Dan: If I had a copy of Mein Kampf, does that make me a Nazi?
Chick: Well, you don’t have a copy of Mein Kampf, but if you did, I would ask you if you were a Nazi.
Dan: Maybe I’m hiding it.
Chick: Why would hide it?
Dan: Cause its just not cool to be a Nazi anymore, baby.
