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| Finding Forrester |
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 (10/10)
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Runtime: 135 |
| Public Rating: 6.17 (46 votes) |
Director: Gus Van Sant |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): Mike Rich |
| Reviewed by: Greg C. |
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Sean Connery turns in a bravura performance as William Forrester, a man who won the Pulitzer on his first try- then disappeared.
Cut to 40 years later, in the Bronx. A young 16-year-old named Jamal Wallace (newcomer Robert Brown) lives here, with his mother and older brother (Busta Ryhmes). Jamal's preference in school is basketball, but his real talent is in his writing- only he knows he won't be accepted if he shows that off too much, so he sticks to basketball.
That is, until Jamal's test scores come back from a state standerdized test- his scores are off the charts. This sparks intrest in a private school in Brooklyn, and there he meets Claire (Anna Paquin), son of the dean of the school. Jamal likes it there, and decides to enroll.
But there is something closer to home bothering him- he and his friends alike. Everytime they get together for basketball, they notice a man watching them through a seventh-floor window. No one knows who he is, so they simply refer to him as 'The Window'. One night, on a dare, Jamal sneaks into The Windows apartment, only to be caught and run off, forgetting his backpack in the apartment.
The next day, he finds his backpack on the street. He takes the backpack home and finds his notebooks- where he practices his writing in secret- have been edited and ideas are given to help his stories.
He goes back to the apartment to ask the man to help him more with his writings. What he discovers, though, is that this man is William Forrester. As the story progresses, both William and Jamal develop a kind of kinship with each other- each helping the other overcome a challange.
The acting in this quiet, personal film is really quite astounding- kudos to Robert Brown for showing remarkable strength against one of the best actors of the 20th century in his first acting role (he originally auditioned as an extra). F. Murray Abraham turns in a Saliari-like performance as Jamal's suspisous English teacher, and Anna Paquin is superb, even if her character is a bit underused.
Finding Forrester is an inspirational movie- after watching it, I felt like writing something. There are some shadows of VanSant's earlier work, "Good Will Hunting", but Forrester is a great work on its own. Don't miss it.
Rated PG-13 for language
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