This spring weather took me back to another place, another time. Though it still isn't quite spring.
My night was once again calming down. Fall was setting in, the daily weather drifted from 70’s in the day to 40’s at night. My birthday was fast approaching and I knew horror was in the air. Feeling a need for fear I pondered what film to watch. I nestled on the couch in front of my 42inch plasma fire with surround sound wondering what to watch to wind down. My cat pounced upon my lap, forcing me to stand and select. As I glanced at my stack of owned but never viewed movies I noticed a pleasurable discovery for my mood. Someone had challenged the question of naming a remake that is better than the original within earshot of me at the bar. Of course the movie I didn’t mention to them, mostly because I didn’t feel like offending all parties with a showcase of my superhuman trait of verbosity, was none other than John Carpenter’s The Thing, but I digress.
Half Nelson is a convincing winner in the remake category. Ryan Fleck simply reworked his already brilliant short film and kept its best star, Shareeka Epps. The handheld camera work speaks to the gentle fuzziness of the film reality. The images that we are meant to see are always in focus, most times the background is not. Yet the world of the film is the world we live in and we can never forget it. This is the thing this film brings us, many points of view and moral decisions. But who are we to judge and decide who can offer the best help for each other.
Ryan Gosling offers a tour de force performance that will leave you moved. To portray a character on film with so many emotions proves the tragic optimism of life. So I guess you could say I liked the film. You should check it out!
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