Rating: 
Summary: Good William Hunting
Review: Sean Connery plays reclusive Pulitzer Prize winning author, William Forrester, who is content to hide from the world. Stunning newcomer, Rob Brown, is Jamal Wallace, a 16 year old talent on the Basketball court. Jamal, also has a secret passion, he likes to write. When he stumbles onto the to the fact that Forrester is alive and well, and living in his New York City neighborhood, he seeks advice from the author. As the film progresses, the two become friends and mentors for each other. William helps Jamal learn about writing and Jamal tries to help William see that there is life outside of his apartment worth living.At first glance, the film's story, might seem very melodramatic and predictable. Thanks to a great performace from Connery, a great supporting cast, and first rate Director Gus Van Sant, the movie is solid throughout. The on-screen character dynamics of Jamal and Forrester are played very real. Van Sant's modest and low key style are perfect. He allows the audience to be drawn in and really get to know his characters. There's nothing flashy here. Everything is understated which only makes the film more enjoyable. Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, and F. Murray Abraham (who redeems himself after playing the villian in the last STAR TREK film, INSURRECTION) all are top notch. Rob Brown is certainly a talent to watch. After all, how many young actors can star opposite Connery, and give an evenly matched performance. The DVD has an HBO First Look special; A few deleted scenes and a featurette on the casting of Rob Brown. The rest of the extras are the standard stuff that you find on most DVDs. This is one of those DVDs that would have been better off with a commentary, rather than a "First Look" I have a feeling that if they ever decide to reissue this, the next edition would probably include an audio commentary.
Rating:
Summary: Strong character development, fine performances
Review: It must be hard to do a successful movie about the literary world. For one thing, it's often such a cerebral subject, and movies demand action. Another problem is that a literate script is a prerequisite. Most movies today don't require this, which results in a lot of screen writers who are long on concept and short on verbal skills. Mike Rich, the man who wrote Finding Forrester, does have writing skills and manages to give us a story that is reasonably compelling. The movie falls short of greatness because it is too long and because the ending is a formula one. but it still manages to be touching and full of hope. It also has a unique view of what it is like to be an intelligent young black man in America that I found to be both interesting and enlightening. To his friends and fellow high school student, Jamal Wallace [Robert Brown] is just nice guy who is very good at basketball. He has secret life that he hides from them. He is an avid reader, and he is constantly writing in his journals. In an old third-story apartment overlooking the public basketball court where Jamal and his buddies play, there lives a recluse. They've never seen him, but they have caught him peering at them from a window. That's why they call him The Window. One day the guys dare Jamal to sneak into the apartment and steal a souvenir. He does this and is caught by The Window, who turns out to be old man. In fleeing, Jamal leaves his backpack behind. The next day he sees it hanging from the man's apartment window. He retrieves the backpack, and when he gets home, he discovers that the journals that were in it have been read. Passages have been marked indicating what the man did and did not like. This begins an extraordinary friendship. Later Jamal will discover that the man is Robert Forrester, a writer who published one novel, gained fame and the Pulitzer prize, and then suddenly vanished. Jamal, Forrester will conclude, has the ability to become a great writer, but will the boy, who is also capable of being a basketball star, have the courage to become one? Sean Connery sparkles as Forrester. He gives us a memorable character who discovers that there is still a spark of hope within his world-weariness. Robert Brown, who has never acted before, is a great find. His Jamal is street-smart, yet obviously worthy of a fuller life. F. Murray Abraham plays an English teacher who is a failed writer and, therefore, thinks Jamal's work is too good for the boy to have done it himself. Some reviewers have stated that Finding Forrester is unrealistic except in the basketball scenes In doing so, they have helped to prove one of the movie's major points. A subtle racial prejudice still exists, even among some of the most urbane and educated people. It implies that a major sports career is perfectly suitable for a bright young black man. Indeed, it is an acceptable and lucrative way to make a living, but that subtle prejudice whispers that that's the summit for a black man or woman, that to aspire for more is to expect too much. I don't believe that's true, and I thought the movie told a story that was entirely possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Intellectual Connery...
Review: It's a good tiny movie a la "Dangerous Minds" or "Lean on Me" wave. A lot of fuzz has been spread about it. Indeed Rob Brown does a good job with it, being this his first movie ever, but Sidney Poitier or Morgan Freeman he ain't. Let's wait and see how he grows, possibly also on stage as well as on camera, to see if he's really worthy to be called an actor. F. Murray Abraham does a good job, but doing what? What he has always been doing, the bad, sadistic and twistedly jealous mentor. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see him do something totally whacky just for once? I felt he was wasted once again by the movie machinery...
Connery is always good in whatever he does, but at times this bothers me, because he could do much better still. In this one, produced by him, he rather prefers to lean back and watch others work. I simply can't see him as a weak character. His true stamina and adrenalin is always overcooking. I could've seen an older William Hurt playing Forrester, but Connery? He has too much power and life in him that simmers through every pore of his skin to be a poor, isolated, secluded and frustrated writer.
He was far better in "The Rock" and in "Entrapment" than in this high-minded intellectual work. I could see it played on stage, but for a movie it's too little. I couldn't sense the immense struggle that both men had to go through in order to win the world. Still it's watchable, but a far cry from "Dead Poets' Society" or "Lean on Me"...
Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly okay, but.....
Review: I avoided this movie in the theaters because I didn't want to see some "great white hope" movie in which an older, elite white man is the savior to a black boy. Luckily, this movie wasn't that patronizing. It was quite refreshing to see a black male student that hit the books harder than the basketball court. Nevertheless, I do fault this movie for never showing the black student have an interest in black authors. Dead white men were not society's only deep thinkers and this movie, maybe even accidentally, supports that fallacy.
Rating: 
Summary: Finding Forrester - a tremendous leap in moviemaking
Review: Words fall short of describing this box office masterpiece. As I observe many new revelations as I endlessly repeat my viewings of this movie, i cant help but be shocked beyond speaking. Casting, Directing, Plot - all fits perfectly together like a chinese picture puzzle. I now feel a surge of energy running from my brain, through my arms, and into my fingertips allowing me to type this small insignifigant piece compared to this tremendous movie....
Rating: 
Summary: Black Version of Good will hunting!
Review: There is a movie that deals with this subject alreay and it is called good will hunting. This is the black version of good will hunting and it sure is not believable. Take a kid from the ghetto and expect him to be a basketball star and a conouseur of Shakespeare. The scene when he uspatges the teacher is pathetic and forced.
Rating:
Summary: One of Connery's best
Review: Apparently this film didn't do as well as expected, and some people have dismissed it as 'Good Will Hunting with literature' but that should not detract from the fact that it is a brilliant well written, well directed film. Connery gives one of his best performances as reclusive novelist William Forrester (based on J.D. Sallinger) who privately tutors a young Jamal who is starting out at a Prep School of high repute and who is encontering covert racism and academic jealousy from one of it's lecturers (F. Murray Abraham).
Rating: 
Summary: be honest......
Review: overall this movie is mediocre
this movie hints at a lot of subtle plot twists that as far as i've flipped through the reviews haven't been noticed
the reason why jamal and anna paquin's relationship falls
is between of coleridge, who appears like a gay sal mineo type, the most interesting character in this movie, a 2 liner
and at the end when anna and jamal's love interest falls apart you can hint at the insinuation a realtionship was going to blossom between coledridge and him
i wish the screenplay writer was more daring to admit he was doing this and gave more lines to the coledridge type, because he would have added more tension to the movie
Rating:
Summary: Vaguely Interesting...
Review: Kind of slow.... But, it was an interesting story. I can't say that it is a remarkable or memorable film, just interesting. Connery, as usual, brings the film to life. He plays his character expertly. It is worth the watch.
Rating:
Summary: This film gets so much right it is worth seeing
Review: I just finished watching this movie and felt moved to cry. It reminded me so much of myself. No, I am not a basketball player but I did fence in college and was state champion twice. I am also black. Further, I had a white teacher while I was in high school who nutured me in intellectual ways that my parents could not. Her mentoring opened my vision of what I could be and a window for me into a larger world. I also met white teachers that felt my work was remarkable for a kid from my background and conditions. While viewing this movie, I vividly remembered what it was like to move within white circles and never be fully accepted by people that claimed to promote me on the one hand, but disparaged me on the other. For those who have never been a Jamal Wallace it might seem a cliche of a movie. But for those who have lived the challenges sited in this film, it is true to life. I particularly like the scenes that showed the closeness of his family, and the distancing of Jamal from his neighborhood friends as he began to progress and change. This distancing is what almost every young person is afraid of, but must face at some time in his or her youth. I recommend this as a fine film for young black kids in "mean" or "not so mean" streets who are offered a way up. I also recommend it for people who are struggling with what it means to be truly intellectually gifted in a world (black and white)that has no place for that. I have not seen "Good Will Hunting", the trailers did not impress me. And thank God for that. People who can watch this movie with open hearts and minds will find it a pleasant, thoughtful mirror that reflects pressures and sensitivities of intellectually gifted blacks and artists who demonstrate promise before their time.
|
