Finding Forrester (Wide Screen) > Reviews > A delight to watch, a joy to listen to

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Well acted .   Briliant soundtrack
Disadvantages:	Not developed enough

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

What to do on a Sunday night after having worked half the day, then played and won at squash, how to calm the mind. I know go and see a movie, which is relaxed and stars one of the best actors of all time (Well he's Scottish of course I have to say that). Yes the erudite Sean Connery, I would love to hear him saying the rhyme 'she sells sea shells by the sea shore', as a matter of fact I would love to hear me saying that after a few. Yes, I was saying, Sean Connery stars in this delightful film 'Finding Forrester'.

Directed by Gus Van Sant, director of Good Will Hunting, he has come up with a similar formulae to GWH. The plot is similar, however this is where the similarity ends. The story is of a young 16 year old black kid from the Bronx named Jamal (Robert Brown XVII) who reads and writes at every opportunity. He hides his love of reading and writing for fear of retribution from his pears. He opts instead to hang out with his friends and play basketball, which he is also very adept at. Enter William Forrester (Sean Connery), a Pulitzer prize winning novelist turned recluse ,who now watches the kids on the street and the birds (the feathered kind) from his flat window.

Jamal has won a scholarship to a prep school due to his test scores at school. Forrester and Jamal meet and develop a teacher-pupil type of relationship. This relationship develops further as they feed off each other. Jamal feeds from Forresters amiable teaching methods and Forrester feeds from Jamals youthful enthusiasm of the writing process.

There are a few sub-plots, which are not developed too far, but enough to pique your interest and keep the story moving along. Claire (Anna Paquin) plays the romantic interest and sticks by Jamal when things get tough. The film also looks at the theme of family love, played by the mother and brother (Busta Rhymes). Another sub-plot was the relationship of Jamal and the bigoted Professor Robert Crawford (F. Murray Abraham) who tries to oust Jamal from the school due to a writers envy. This could have been developed further as Abraham was great in this role.

The cinematography is good, however is inconsistent and starts of well but then lapses into the ordinary. I also found some of the dialogue between Forrester and Jamal a joy, it was natural, easy and funny.

Something I didn't expect to find in this film was a great soundtrack. The atmospheric sounds of Miles Davis, Bill Frisell, and Ornette Coleman blended beautifully with the film to create a moving cacophony (my god, it's getting serious when I use words like that) of sight and sounds. The end of the film was played to the songs of 'what a wonderful world and somewhere over the rainbow' by Kamakawiwo'ole. A great soundtrack, which makes the film, if nothing else, worth watching.

I liked this film a lot, it is thought provoking, entertaining, well acted and has a beautiful soundtrack. The plot could have been developed further and Van Sant, in my opinion, didn't exploit the acting abilities of Connery and Brown. There could have been a broader range of emotions displayed in this film. I will definitely be buying this on DVD to watch it again.