The Attraction between Dan and Drey - Movie Review Example

The story is so familiar since it relates to everyday happenings i.e. connections between charismatic teacher and their students, drug dealers and their distressed customers, and the hardy lives of city young people brought up by single working parents. All these makeup indifferent urban dramas. Dan and Drey are teachers and students with significantly varying age differences but are faced with similar crises. They are both looking for something to believe in and rely on. (Halliwell123)

Dan does not only do drugs but is a successful history teacher at Brooklyn high school and finds time to coach the girls' basketball team. He believes in the essence of history being the Hegelian dialects and this theory is seen to reflect in his own life. He is neither a good man with negative habits nor a bad man with positive habits. Rather he is both sides of himself at all times and this conflict is what is pulling him apart. (Halliwell128)

Drey is also familiar with the world of drug abuse as her brother is in prison for related charges. With the realization that Dan is a user, both of them are alarmed by the possible negative or positive changes that they may not be capable to prevent or encourage. Frank is also a drug dealer and has ties with Drey’s family. He seemed to be an intelligent and mediocre caring man. Drey knows that drugs are evil but does not view Frank as a dangerous man (Halliwell130)

Dan is a dedicated teacher, full of ideas, and a skeptic, who devotes his life to improving others while destroying himself and is desperately alone. When Drey finds him getting high after school she decided to offer him company since she was also suffering from her loneliness. It is this act of kindness that sparked the bond of friendship between the two. The students presented in the film are average city kids and this makes it a challenge to many stereotypes. Dan and Drey's friendship is both intimate and troubling (Halliwell132)

Drey is a realistic teenage girl who doe not fit the stereotypical girl who does not cover her problems through promiscuity or drugs. She is faced with problems at home where she listens to her mother as she quarrels with her father for not taking an active role in her life. Her brother is also in jail for drug dealing while she finds her teacher in a similar position. Frank however looks after Drey though he is responsible for her brother being in jail. Drey eventually tries a job of helping Frank with the drug deals and this makes her encounter the real temptations of the drug economy. She however ensures this without an air of despair. Read More