Posted: 12/26/2000

Finding Forrester

(2000)

by Hank Yuloff

Connery heads a superb cast in this quiet little gem from Gus Van Sant.

I assume most people want to see Finding Forrester because they enjoy watching Sean Connery. While that is a very good reason, there is another actor who makes this movie equally well worth your while: Robert Brown as Jamal Wallace.

Finding Forrester is the intriguing story about a reclusive author, who would be termed a 1-hit-wonder in the music business, that becomes the mentor of a brilliant black teenager who has no outlet for his intelligence to be nourished.

William Forrester penned one novel in the 1940’s that became a classic. But as life’s luck happens, he was unable to create another. He has lived in the same Bronx apartment for all these years, observing society from a far. He is called “The Window” by the residents who have only seen a mysterious figure in the apartment at his window.

This changes when Wallace, on a dare from his friends, breaks into the apartment to find out more information. He is chased out by Connery, leaving his backpack behind. Here is the key: Wallace has been writing his thoughts into several journals that he carries in his backpack, which is returned by The Window…with the journals “graded!”

What develops is a mutually beneficial friendship that awakens the self-confidence in both Wallace and Forrester.

Also worth watching is Anna Panquin as Claire Spence. In both Finding Forrester and Almost Famous, Panquin has blossomed to fulfill the promise we saw in her Oscar winning performance in The Piano. She has successfully overcome the gap between child and adult actress. F. Murray Abraham plays the heavy in this picture: A self-important professor who feels he should always be the final word. I wish this character wasn’t necessary in this movie. The negativity was a distraction from a wonderful success story.

This was Rob Brown’s first acting job. He was born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn, New York and seems to be a natural who never studied acting and who had no professional acting experience prior to Finding Forrester. Brown celebrated his 16th birthday just before the start of production. He is also a talented athlete in high school playing both basketball and football.

A cut above the norm, Finding Forrester gets a B+.

Hank Yuloff is an entertainment industry entrepreneur living in Hollywood.

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