Finding Forrester

Plot synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) plays basketball with his friends in New York. A recluse, William Forrester (Sean Connery), lives on the top floor of the building across from the court. The kids regularly notice him watching them. One of the boys dares Jamal to sneak into the apartment and retrieve an item. Jamal takes a letter opener only to be surprised by Forrester and inadvertently leaves his backpack behind. Forrester later drops Jamal's backpack onto the street. Jamal returns home to find that Forrester wrote notes in Jamal's journals. Jamal returns to Forrester's apartment and asks him to read more of his writing. Forrester tells him to begin with 5,000 words on why Jamal should "stay the fuck out of my home," which he completes and leaves on the doorstep the following day.
Jamal returns the next day, and is invited inside. Forrester knows that a representative from Mailor-Callow, a prestigious private school, offered Jamal a full academic scholarship, partly for his skill on the basketball court and partly for his test scores. Jamal learns that Forrester is the author of a famous book, Avalon Landing, and that he has never published another. Forrester agrees to help Jamal with his writing as long as Jamal does not ask about his personal life or tell others of his whearabouts.
Jamal's writing improves, which causes Robert Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), a professor at Mailor-Callow, to suspect plagiarism.
Jamal convinces Forrester to attend a game at Madison Square Garden, but Forrester cannot handle the crowds and has an anxiety attack. Jamal takes him instead to see Yankee Stadium late at night after everyone has gone where Forrester tells Jamal details about his family, which explains the basis of his book, specifically his brother's post-war trauma, alcoholism and Forrester's indirect role in his death. He also explains how the subsequent deaths of his parents soon after affected him and led to his becoming a recluse.
Forrester gives Jamal some of his own private essays to rewrite, with the condition that Jamal is not to take them from the apartment.
Meanwhile, there is a school writing contest coming up, and Crawford forces Jamal to stay after school so he can watch him produce an essay. Jamal can not write under such conditions and running out of time, he submits one of Forrester's exercises to the contest.
Jamal is then called in by Crawford and the school board who reveal that Forrester indeed published the article that Jamal's essay is based on. Crawford finds the parallels between the two pieces and brings Jamal up on plagiarism charges.
Jamal must either cite Forrester's work or prove he had Forrester's permission to use the material. He refuses to do either to keep his promise to Forrester. Crawford demands that Jamal write an apology letter to his classmates and read it in front of the class which Jamal also refuses which may lead to his expulsion.
Jamal tells Forrester what he has done and asks him to defend him, but Forrester is angry at Jamal for breaking his promise about taking the paper. Jamal accuses Forrester of being scared and selfish for not helping him.
Jamal is told by the school that they will drop the plagiarism charges if he wins them the state championship. Jamal does well in the game but ambiguously misses two free throw shots at the end of the game, costing the team the championship. Jamal writes an essay to Forrester that discusses the gift of friendship. Jamal's brother, Terrell (Busta Rhymes), finds the essay sealed in an envelope and gives it to Forrester.
Jamal attends the school contest. During the readings by other students, Forrester appears, announces himself and receives permission to read an essay that draws overwhelming applause from the students. As Crawford is praising the work, Forrester acknowledges his friendship with Jamal and reveals that the essay he had just read was written by Jamal. He also explains that Jamal had written the contest essay using the published title and first paragraph with permission. Crawford adamantly states that this will not change any of the board's decisions. The board overrules him and drops the plagiarism charges, readmitting Jamal's entry to the competition. After the competition, Forrester thanks Jamal for his friendship and tells him of his desire to visit his native land of Scotland.
A year later, Forrester's attorney (Matt Damon) meets with Jamal and tells him that Forrester died of cancer, with which he had been diagnosed before he met Jamal. The lawyer gives Jamal the keys to Forrester's apartment, a package, and a letter in which Forrester thanks Jamal for helping him rekindle his desire to live. The package contains the manuscript of Forrester's second novel, for which Jamal is expected to write the foreword.

Tags: inspiring, boring

Review:
A reclusive author, whose only published novel won the Pulitzer Prize, becomes the mentor of an underprivileged and talented sixteen-year-old in `Finding Forrester,' directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Connery and newcomer Rob Brown.
As a person who enjoys good movies, as well as reading and writing, I loved this film, and would see it again.
I would hope that the apparent similarities to the director, Gus Van Sant's earlier work, Good Will Hunting, do not dissuade anyone from seeing the film.
Also, although there are several humorous lines in the movie, they do not rely on cheap puns or slap stick humor.William Forester once wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book, but now is a recluse, hiding from his fame, who never leaves his book-filled apartment in the Bronx, but spends his time reading and bird watching, as well as watching the teenagers of the neighborhood play basketball in the park outside his window.
Symbolism is important in this film, and it makes many good points about people, how we relate to each other, and how we deal with the difficulties of life.The movie stays away from any violence and sex.
The acting is wonderful, particularly from the experienced Sean Connery, playing the title character, and from newcomer Robert Brown, as Jamal.
Other than that, I had no inclination what the story was about so there was surprise from the outset seeing that the movie was starring Busta Rhymes and was set in the Bronx.How surprised I was as this gentle and perfectly paced tale brings together two people who share a common love for writing, one is a faded writer who once had success, and the other is a new talent who faces so many obstacles in his path to let his talent shine.There are similarities to other films such as Dead Poets Society, but what captures the viewer and their imagination is the restraint and the simplicity.
Choices and actions are small, compassionate, and you can relate them to real life.The relationship between Forrester (Connery) and Jamal (Rob Brown) is superbly played with Brown holding back perfectly until the scene where his restraint fails, and Connery giving one of the most emotive and complex performances I have ever seen.
Director Gus Van Sant also directed `Good Will Hunting' and this film has essentially the same plot.
They are such close cousins that Van Sant felt compelled to bring in Matt Damon for a cameo.Regardless of the familiar plot, `Finding Forrester' succeeds because of an excellent screenplay and outstanding acting performances by Sean Connery, Rob Brown and F.
Van Sant gives Forrester's apartment a dark and dreary look from a color and lighting perspective, which is particularly effective.Sean Connery is in top form and continues to make the case for being one of our best and most treasured actors.
(Note that the movie did not seem nearly that long to me.) Perhaps the plot and story could have been tighter, but it's really a remarkable job for first-time screenwriter Mike Rich.The acting, while not always remarkable, was quite good.
The other characters were well-acted though not generally well-developed (hence much criticism of this movie).Others have compared Finding Forrester to Goodwill Hunting (also directed by Gus Van Sant) and to Scent of a Woman, suggesting that it is just a ripoff of the plot in those two.
However, it's just as likely that Rich had no particular person in mind when he crafted Forrester (since, after all, the First Novel Syndrome is a well known plot theme).All in all, while not The Great American Movie, it's a very good movie and well worth watching..
Eventhough the general idea of two different people bonding is here, everything else is as different as it comes.The story is about Jamal Wallace(Rob Brown, making his bigscreen debut), an allstar basketball player who's only 16 but has a passion for writing and reading.
After revisiting the man, Wallace finds out that "The Window" is none other than reclusive author William Forrester(Sean Connery), who has been hiding for 40 years.
Murray Abraham), his new girlfriend(Anna Paquin), his brother(rapper Busta Rhymes) and everyone else in his life.The acting in this film is universally excellent, and no matter how it is billed Brown is the real star of this movie.
And after seeing this movie three weeks after the Academy Awards it makes it all the more shocking that 'Gladiator' won as I can't see how, in any way, it is better than this great film.
Like a great book 'Finding Forrester' gets better every viewing and i'm sure it will stand the test of time.
He goes back to the flat and tries to get the man to help him further with his writing.Has it been so many years since Good Will Hunting that Van Sant felt the need to remake it with elements changed?
Connery is equally as good in a role that he could have slummed off his famous voice and natural presence; but instead he works with a vulnerability that is convincing and makes his character and the story so much more interesting.
Support from Abraham is by-the-numbers but effective (although his final scene is unconvincing); I didn't understand why Paquin bothered (or why they bothered to have her character in the story) while Rhymes is just what you expect and only looks weak at the end when he is asked to emote.Overall this is a solid and enjoyable film despite the fact that it seems determined to do just what you expect it to do.
Director Gus Van Sant took the best parts of his own Good Will Hunting and Scent Of A Woman and fashioned Finding Forrester.
Rob Brown who was a newcomer played the kid who has gotten a basketball scholarship, from a posh prep school, but has dazzled many with his abilities as a writer.Finding Forrester has an interesting commentary on our stereotypes.
In an obvious return to Good Will Hunting territory, Gus Van Sant gives us another story of a gifted young student (this time played by Rob Brown) and his aged mentor (Sean Connery).Student Jamal Wallace (Brown) meets reclusive writer William Forrester (Connery) who wrote one successful novel decades ago, but has refused to write another, and now lives in self-enforced obscurity.
Connery can be a good actor, but he's given nothing to really work with and the story and character development in Finding Forrester are strictly by the numbers.
Jamal approaches the apartment, this time using the front door, and asks "the window" if he would read more of his writing.I truly love this movie.
"The Window", played by Sean Connery, is a very sympathetic character and, as he takes on the role of mentor to Brown's character, the audience is given the opportunity to see it change both of their lives for the better.
People might remember director Gus Van Sant's earlier work in Good Will Hunting (equally good) more famously, but Finding Forrester never seizes to amaze me on every single viewing.
Finding Forrester is a film with great potential, a fine cast, and some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in a movie.
Busta turns a surprisingly dramatic performance as Jamal's content older brother, and Connery, Abraham, and Brown all demonstrate their polished acting skills, albeit hampered at times by an unwieldly script.
This one shows how Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) discovered his own strength by helping William Forrester (Sean Connery), and managed to challenge the dictatorial professor (F.
GUS VAN SANT & SEAN CONNERY doing what they are best at !I was so drawn into the characters and story of this movie that I ended up searching for the author and his book to see if they were crafted from inspiration and true life incidents.
William Forrester (Sean Connery) is a reclusive writer living in an old building in a black neighborhood.
This film centers around a young boy named Jamal Wallace and an introverted older man named William Forrester.
While managing his surroundings, girls and new teammates on the basketball team, Forrester teaches Jamal how to use his words and let his inner thoughts flow in his writing at his new school.
With championship basketball games, a potential girlfriend, a pompous professor, and Forrester's expectations floating around in Jamal's mind, the struggle of writing the story of Jamal Wallace rests on Jamal's pen and paper.Finding Forrester easily identifies itself as a highly intelligent film which draws on its ability to make the audience differentiate between their passions and careers.
Although the plot could be more original, the underlying details make the story unique when compared to films such as Good Will Hunting (also directed by Gus Van Sant).
Perhaps appropriately for a film in which allegations of plagiarism play an important role in the plot, "Finding Forrester" is a good example of Hollywood's propensity for self-cannibalisation.
And the character of Jamal, another academically gifted but troubled young man from a working-class background, recalls Gus Van Sant's own "Good Will Hunting".
The film, in fact, can be seen as the story of how Forrester helps Jamal to define his own identity, free from the preconceptions of Crawford and of white society in general.
Towards the end of the film Jamal misses two free throw shots in a vital basketball game, and the possibility is raised that he may have done so deliberately in order to confound the perception that black men are good at sport and not much else.
When I saw "Finding Forrester" on television recently, however, I was glad that I resisted my initial impulse to switch channels as soon as I saw the director's name in the opening credits, because this was the first Van Sant film I actually enjoyed.
The movie is about a young writer, Jamal who is talented as basket ball player and gifted in his high school academic work.
Had the film tried to develop everything else, it would have lost this principal focus, and much of its impact.Sean Connery does a masterful job, as always, and Rob Brown as Jamal is a natural.
Anna Paquin is charming, as is the chemistry between her character and Jamal.A bit less sentimental than "Good Will Hunting," if you liked that film, you will like this one.
When I first heard about the story I was like 'oh I gotta see it!' but when I heard it was Sean Connery who played one of the main characters I was as good as in the movie theater =)It really is an amazing movie and it does not only have one message!
Van Sant made the hugely successful, horribly overrated and totally spurious "Good Will Hunting".There's a scene in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" in which Van Sant plays himself, ignoring the movie he is supposed to be directing while he counts the money he's making.
No matter, it's infuriating to witness the prostitution of a film maker of his caliber.Both "Good Will Hunting" and "Finding Forrester" are movies designed to make audiences feel good and to this end  Van Sant uses every manipulative trick in the book.
Black kids all live in the Bronx, have single mothers, live in poverty, don't really speak understandable English, their only chance to get an education is through sports, when they meet their match on a team they're bound to fight to try to resolve the conflict, white professors hate talent in black kids, black kids can only learn if taught by a literary genious but not in a class, white girls love black boys, white girls' fathers always live in huge mansions, white girls' fathers don't like black kids seeing their daughters, and so on, ad nauseaum.This could have been a good film.Worth watching mostly because it's always good to see Sean Connery..
This person is Forrester (played by Sean Connery in one of his more unbelievable roles) who is found, by accident of course, by a brilliant though pretty much unknown writer named Jamal (Rob Brown in a good breakthrough).
I've been told that it's very similar to an earlier Gus Van Sant movie, Good Will Hunting; I'll have to check that out, to find out if it's better than this.
After striking out big time remaking "Psycho," director Gus Van Sant turns to making a TV movie version of his previous hit "Goodwill Hunting" but without one fully developed character.
I appreciated that."Finding Forrester" is most notable for one of Connery's best performances ever, but it's overall a good film.
We wait till all the movies we are interested in, come out on DVD.I like all of Sean Connery's roles except the James Bond one or two or??
Continuing my plan to watch every Sean Connery movie in order, I come to the penultimate movie in his filmography Finding Forrester (2000)Plot In A Paragraph: A young writing protégé (Rob Brown), finds help with a reclusive author (Connery) The last REALLY good movie Connery made.
Sean Connery does a wonderful job, as does his young co-star, who I believe was a first-time actor when this film was made.
So when he writes his big paper and steals the title of one of forrester's previous works, jamal finds himself about to be kicked out of the private school even though he wrote that paper.
A very unlikely friendship develops between two people, Jamal Wallace( Rob Brown) A 16 Year old kid who lives in the Bronx and William Forrester( Sean Connery), a reclusive old man who lives on the top floor of the building across the street from where Jamal plays basketball.
A mother's role in any movie is very important ,because whether they play a good or bad role that can have an effect on how you see the main character( the assumptions you first make of them).Janice Wallace plays a part in helping him reach his full potential by giving him the choice to go to this school.
Jamal decides to go back to the apartment room and find out who it is, and after a little confrontation he is surprised to find out that the "creepy old man" is none other than the one and only William Forrester, played by Sean Connery.
With his new friend William Forrester helping him through it all, which to me makes him an archetypal hero, he starts doing great until a confrontation with Prof.
John Russum 4th Period Finding Forrester Movie AnalysisThe film Finding Forrester is an interesting story about a boy from the Bronx named Jamal.
This journey will not only benefit Jamal but also William Forester as he learns about friendship.This film was very well developed and organized, I truly believe that there are not many people who will dislike watching this movie, however I do believe it takes an educated mind to be able to truly understand the point that the movie writer in trying to make.
They called Forrester "the man in the window", that lead to a turning point in the life of Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown).
They end up having a strange relationship between them.One archetype in this movie is the mentor (Mr. Forrester), who continues to help Jamal, not just on his writing but with his own life, his purpose in life.
(WARNING, SPOILERS) In the film, Finding Forrester, sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace at first appears to be a typical young African American growing up in the Bronx.
Later in the film, Jamal faces many trails at his new school from his professor Robert Crawford, who accuses Jamal of plagiarizing his work, which Forrester disproves when he reads Jamal's work in front of the class and gives Jamal credit for the writing.
Jamal, Forrester, and Crawford drive the film forward in such an interesting way that the audience can't help but be intrigued.
At the same time, it isn't a feel good movie either.A reclusive author whose only book won a Pulitzer Prize becomes the mentor of an underprivileged yet extremely talented sixteen year-old, starring Sean Connery and Rob Brown.
A prep school offers Jamal a scholarship due to his high test scores and their need to win the basketball championship.Although it is shown that Forrester is Jamal's mentor, Forrester learns things from Jamal as well, such as not being afraid of leaving his house and also that friendship is more than just being there.The acting is wonderful, especially from Sean Connery, playing the title character, and from Rob Brown, as Jamal.
A great film about writing, Finding Forrester centers around a young black writing and basketball prodigy from the Bronx who meets a reclusive classic writer by chance.
I would certainly like to find more movies with writing as a central theme.In the acting department, Sean Connery is as brilliant as ever.
The difference between the two movies is that "Good Will Hunting" was first, and as such, more original with better characters and not so much pandering to the audience.
Sean Connery's characters name is WILLIAM Forrester.
It is a great movie about a young boy named Jamal Wallace (played by Rob Brown, an unknown) who receives help from William Forrester (Sean Connery), the man that wrote "the great 20th century novel." Forrester's life is surrounded by mystery, and his and Jamal's relationship goes through many ups and downs before the end of the movie.
Finding Forrester really is the most inspiring movie ever!When I first heard about the story I was like 'oh I gotta see it!' but when I heard it was Sean Connery who played one of the main characters I was as good as in the movie theater =)It really is an amazing movie and it does not only have one message!
Sean Connery plays Forrester, a hidden author of a book that can possibly help out Jamal Wallace.
The name Gus Van Sant seemed familiar as the film began, and the plot of the mentor student relationship, did during the film remind me of Good Will Hunting, but this film was clearly not the same.On a personal level my thrill of watching Sean Connery doing something this deep and relevant, really touched me.