Film Review: Finding Forrester (2000)
Today’s debates about “wokeness” and desire to view the most complex issues through simple single-issue prism of race, gender or sexual orientation are related to the phenomenon that was present within Western intelligentsia for a long time. The author of this review encountered this phenomenon more than two decades ago. One of the examples was review of Finding Forrester, 2000 drama directed by Gus Van Sant, published in one of Croatia’s most respected magazines. The critic gave the film best possible marks simply on the account of director’s sexual orientation and interpreted its content as “subversive attack on Hollywood’s heterosexual values”.
The protagonist is Jamal Wallace (played by Rob Brown), 16-year old African American boy from Bronx who has great passion and talent for writing. He, however, tries very hard to hide this from his friends and instead prefers to show off his basketball skills at the courtyard near the building occupied by mysterious recluse, which is subject of all kinds of wild rumours. One day Jamal accepts his friends’ challenge and break into recluse’s apartment only to run away after being discovered by its owner. While doing so, he accidentally left notebook with his writing there. Later he discovers, much to his surprise, that the recluse is William Forrester (played by Sean Connery), famous writer who wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning novel only to retire from the public after his greatest triumph. Forrester has read Jamal’s notebook, recognised his talent and wants to become his mentor. In the meantime, thanks to his basketball skills, Jamal has won scholarship for elite private school in Manhattan. He doesn’t handle new environment well and biggest source of trouble is Robert Crawford (played by F. Murray Abraham), arrogant English teacher who simply can’t believe that someone with Jamal’s background can be an accomplished writer.
While some critics indulged in searching for implicit gay content in Finding Forrester, most have found more obvious things, like similarities of the basic plot with Van Sant’s previous and much more successful film Good Will Hunting and its basic premise of talented young man being mentored by an old expert. Script by Mark Rich adds racial diversity that previous film lacked while also employing various cliches. One of them is obligatory romantic subplot dealing with Jamal and white private school student Claire (played by Anna Paquin), added probably in order to quash all speculations about nature of the relationship between Jamal and Forrester. Another element is Jamal being blessed not only with literary, but also with sports talent, and probably because showing someone’s brilliance with words on paper is more difficult than with athletic skills. Character of Jamal’s older brother, played by rap artist Busta Rhymes, is introduced as typical “comic relief”. The final showdown between Jamal and his school nemesis looks like a cheap copy from the similar scene in Scent of a Woman. Made with obvious Oscar-grabbing ambitions, Finding Forrester, however, fails to reach standards of the film it tries to emulate. Rich’s script is only a shadow of work by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting, while Van Sant appears to have forgot his edginess from My Own Private Idaho days and makes his film overlong. Rob Brown in his feature debut does a good job, but even when paired with regal presence of Sean Connery, he can’t improve generally disappointing impression. Although watchable, Finding Forrester is unlikely to please viewers that had their expectations built on notable names behind and in front of camera.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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I haven’t seen this one since the 2000s. I remember it well, though. While not as good as Good Will Hunting, it’s still better than 90% of the crap you have to endure these days. The cinematography was nice, the script was ok. But the best of that movie was seeing the great Sean Connery as the recluse bearded wise man. It was his last great role before retiring form acting in 2003. As a writer myself, I have always loved the advice Sean Connery gives to the young writer: “Punch the keys, for Christ’s sake!”, I have always done that every time I’m at the keyboard. A very enjoyable movie.