Whenever Sean Connery stars in a movie, his brilliance tends to overshadow the film’s other key actors. But in “Finding Forrester,” Connery’s excellence on the screen is matched by newcomer Rob Brown, who plays the gifted Jamal Wallace in director Gus Van Sant’s (“Good Will Hunting”) latest movie. Jamal, a 16-year-old black kid with undeniable talent on the local Bronx basketball courts, is a “just-enough-to-get-by” C student, although the results of his aptitude tests, not to mention his love of reading and writing, suggest he’s holding himself back in the classroom. On his way back from a Yankees game one night, Jamal’s buddies dare him to sneak into the apartment occupied by the mysterious “Man in the window,” the typical neighborhood shut-in whom everyone seems to have a story about even though he’s never been seen in public. The mission is simple: get in and get out with something from the apartment. But Jamal, who assumes the apartment’s owner is asleep, panics and runs when he comes face to face with the shut-in, leaving behind his backpack which contained several of his writing notebooks.
The next day, Jamal is on the basketball court alone when his backpack comes flying out of the apartment’s open window. Without asking any questions, he picks it up and walks home, where he later discovers hundreds of editorial comments scribbled throughout in red ink. Jamal later asks the recluse, played by Connery, to continue helping him with his writing. Later, we find out his new teacher is William Forrester, a writer who published a masterpiece decades earlier before suddenly falling off the literary radar.
Think “Scent of a Woman” mixed with a little “Dead Poets Society” and even a touch of “The Karate Kid” and you’ve got this flick figured out. Forrester becomes Jamal’s mentor, teaching him what he knows about the world in general and writing in particular. Obviously in the process, Jamal also teaches his grumpy and cynical teacher, who hasn’t been out of his apartment in years, a thing or two about today’s world. While this type of story may seem overdone, don’t underestimate Connery’s presence on the screen or Brown’s surprising maturity. “Finding Forrester” is a great date movie, but with plenty of hoops action and no overly sappy moments, a film you and your buddies would enjoy as well.
4 / 5 Stars
Starring: Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, April Grace, Michael Pitt, Michael Nouri
Director: Gus Van Sant
