Amazon.co.uk Review
Finding Forrester is a very accomplished example of the sentimental melodrama that Gus Von Sant has made his own--issues like integrity and snobbery are presented with just enough simplification to the set pieces that no-one feels challenged. Brilliant baseball player Jamal gets the chance to move from a sink school in the Bronx to a private academy where his real intellectual and artistic talent will be nurtured along with his sporting skills. This is an American film about class and race, but one that makes the real issue Jamal's unsuspecting need to defend himself against accusations of plagiarism. His artistic mentor is a reclusive novelist, whose whereabouts he keeps secret even when he stands to lose everything. Rob Brown is extraordinary as the boy, conveying the sensitivity, genius, obstinacy and physicality of a character written as a paragon; Sean Connery turns in a predictably fine performance as Forrester, using his authority to make the part credible; F Murray Abrahams is, as always, an effective villain--he brings an observed creepy snobbery to the film; Anna Paquin makes a good impression in the minor part of Jamal's white schoolfellow and supporter.
On the DVD: The disc includes two powerful deleted scenes of school choirs, a "making-of" documentary and a short film about the auditions process which found Rob Brown. It has fine sound--Dolby Digital 5.1--that brings out the film's jazz score perfectly. The anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16:9 TVs, looks just fine. --Roz Kaveny
Customer Reviews:
Great actors, formula movie.......2006-03-02
It has been done a million times and this won't be the last time the "teacher, student, rebel," mechanism will be tried. Take one recluse (Sean Connery) and an aspiring under privileged student (Rob Brown VI) to cancel out a dysfunctional environment. They even have a common nasty antagonist (F. Murray Abraham) to pick on.
Predictability is not the problem. It starts out so noisy that you will have to turn the sound off for the first five minutes. Everything from the story to the environment to the camera shots is mediocre. Anything that may have been of use for writing or refereed to writing is glossed over with music or faded out. You can be assured this movie has nothing to do with writing other than hitting the (typewriter) keys hard enough. The characters (not that the actors did not try) had no depth. Too many things were inferred from obscure camera shots. You get the picture.
HEART FELT, REALISTIC FANTASY.......2005-01-14
Having taught a few decades ago in the South Bronx, I found the setting and kids portrayed in FINDING FORRESTER refreshingly believable. I was getting to think that Hollywood could only find thugs and drug addicts among its usual stereotypes of poor black kids living in such areas. So it was refreshing and even encouraging to be treated to a story with top actors, led by one of its action-adventure, senior sex symbols Sean Connery, as the titled recluse novelist Forrester.
The celebrated F. Murray Abraham did a creditable job portraying the nemesis of the central character Jamal played by, who years ago would have been called a "natural actor," Rob Brown. By now, most people reading this must known the plot: basketball superstar ghetto teenager is discovered to be a literary genius who struggles with his identity while being given the chance to succeed on a scholarship at a prestigious private high school.
The budding teen writer meets a hermit novelist buried away in his 'hood, and the two become friends and literary soul mates. I liked the story and the acting for the most part. Connery and Brown were a marvelous team. However, much as I like Abraham as an actor it seemed to me he played the personality of his villain (Jamal's English composition teacher who tries to get him expelled by proving the kid's brilliant essays were all plagiarized writing) a bit too much like Salieri in AMADEUS. Maybe, had I not seen the Mozart movie this would not have irritated me so much. Nevertheless, I can't hold that against the movie.
Uplifting, realistic fantasies, avoiding stereotypes and not challenging common sense have become such a rarity these days that five stars is a fair rating for this thoroughly enjoyable movie. I'll bet teenagers like it too.
HIGHLY ABSORBING...SEAN CONNERY IS A NATIONAL TREASURE..........2003-02-12
This is a heartwarming movie with fine performances by Sean Connery, newcomer Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Nouri, and Anna Pacquin. Well directed by Gus Van Sant, the film revolves around the two main characters, William Forrester, played by Sean Connery, and sixteen year old Kamal, played by Rob Brown.
William Forrester is a writer who, battling his own inner demons, has remained reclusive after writing a Pulitzer Prize winning novel some forty odd years earlier. Living alone in a changing neighborhood in the Bronx, he makes the acquaintance of Kamal, an intellectually gifted inner city kid, who plays street basketball, loves to write, and does both well.
A mentoring relationship springs between the two. Under Forrester's secret tutorship, Kamal blossoms. When Kamal's scholastic test scores come to the attention of a local prep school, school officials offer him a scholarship to attend and, if he chooses to do so, play basketball on the school team. The school also turns out to be William Forrester's alma mater, where he is revered and his prize winning novel is required reading.
There, Kamal encounters rank racism, all the more insidious because it is covert. F. Murray Abraham plays a teacher who is very similar to the character, Salieri, whom Abraham portrayed in the film "Amadeus". A failed writer who became a teacher, Abraham oozes racism as he contrives to destroy Kamal whom he accuses of plagiarism, as he clearly believes him to be just another inner city, black basketball player who is incapable of anything more. He cannot seem to fathom that this kid could possibly write as well as he does, because he has Kamal stereotyped.
Yet, Kamal is actually all that he purports to be, a gifted writer who just also happens to play basketball. Truly scholarly, he shows up his teacher in class, only to further exacerbate his enmity. This teacher's dislike and covert racism manifests itself in the exclusion of Kamal's entry in the prestigious writing competition sponsored by the prep school. This situation comes to a head when the teacher's racism is exposed for what it is in a stunning, surprising climax.
Kamal, however, is not the only one to have a moment of redemption in the movie. Forrester, too, has that moment as he comes to grips with his past, the past that made him shut the world out for so long. It is his friendship with Kamal that illuminates his return to the very world from which he had withdrawn long ago.
This film is about a friendship that is borne out of a shared passion. It is about the old nurturing the young. It is about passing the baton from one generation to the next. It is a film the transcends age and race. It is a film for everyone.
Great actors formula movie.......2002-10-23
It has been done a million times and this won't be the last time the "teacher, student, rebel," mechanism will be tried. Take one recluse (Sean Connery) and an aspiring under privileged student (Rob Brown VI) to cancel out a dysfunctional environment. They even have a common nasty antagonist (F. Murray Abraham) to pick on.
Predictability is not the problem. It starts out so noisy that you will have to turn the sound off for the first five minutes. Everything from the story to the environment to the camera shots is mediocre. Anything that may have been of use for writing or refereed to writing is glossed over with music or faded out. You can be assured this movie has nothing to do with writing other than hitting the (typewriter) keys hard enough. The characters (not that the actors did not try) had no depth. Too many things were inferred from obscure camera shots. You get the picture.
An Inspiring Production!!.......2001-11-04
What an amazing movie that comes along "as a one in a million film that hits the shelves!". I can only express how lucky I feel to have picked this movie up, especially considering how little publication it's release has received. The film is a true reminder of how the importance of friendship between two people can supersede many of life's other importances. No matter where they come from, or what background they may have? A must-see film for any readers of this review!
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