The Believer (2001) [US 98min.  directed by Henry Bean]

Real-life drama starring Ryan Gosling, Billy Zane and Theresa Russell. An articulate young Jew, Danny Balint, becomes a rabid fascist after growing disillusioned by the contradictions of his faith. He is enlisted as a mouthpiece for a neo-Nazi organisation trying to gain intellectual respectability, but soon finds himself ostracised by the group when he refuses to tone down his anti-Semitic views.

Today Ryan Gosling is one of the best known and widely photographed faces in the Hollywood mainstream ; a decade ago he graduated from television to take the lead role in a feature film for the first time.
If he set out to make an immediate impact then this debut feature by screenwriter turned director Bean was an inspired choice. The Believer showcases Gosling's emerging acting talent perfectly  - his character appears in all but one scene in the film and his portrayal of Danny Balint is gripping from the opening scene of his tracking and assaulting a young Jewish student to the final, elliptical metaphor/symbol.

Balint (as played by Gosling) is a smart-mouthed, quick thinking charismatic : far removed from the stereotypical knuckle-dragging neanderthal that the ultra-right are often represented by on film.
It's easy to understand how fellow travellers (of both the intellectual and the thuggish variety) are attracted to him.

Gosling inhabits the role - his natural physique, heavy lidded eyes, unreadable  facial expression and intensity all add to the  attraction of the character. The dislocation between his physical appearance and the vile belief system that he propounds is, thus, all the greater and adds to the level of mystery around his character.

Smartly, Bean gives the inexperienced lead two actors who know their way around a movie set to work with : as the Balint character's mentors in the overground neo-fascist movement Billy Zane and Theresa Russell are older counterpoints to Gosling's young tyro : attractive, well spoken people who attempt to intellectualise their position on the fringes of political thought. They add depth and weight to the film in among the more violent episodes featuring Gosling and his young friends.

While not a perfect film, (there's a romantic sub-plot that seems to exist only to provide an easy explanation to events in the last reel, for example) there's enough thought and care gone into it's making to remove any thought of sensationalism.

Henry Bean went on to write Basic Instinct 2 (2006) and direct the little seen Noise (2007) - which is shame because The Believer  demonstrates some real talent in the way in which it's directed, mainly using hand-held close-ups and low angle shots which emphasise the manner of Gosling's towering over the others in his circle of fascists.

Gosling would return to the dead-pan intensity of this character in the mega-budget Drive (2011).