Finding Forrester

Finding Forrester achieves a distinct success few Hollywood movies can even dream of: It overwhelms and inspires with understatement.

Written, acted and directed so intelligently that it stands out from the pack, and is guaranteed to give you the warm glow of holiday movies past -- the kind that celebrated faith in human potential and the value of hard work. more

The ending leans to soap opera, but Van Sant, revisiting the closet-genius theme of "Good Will Hunting" is too keen an observer of character to let this funny and touching film go soft. more

Provides a platform for Sean Connery to deliver a definitive, career-summation performance. more

Manages to take the cerebral act of literary creation and make it exciting, sexy even. more

The scenes between the old man and the teenager are at the heart of the movie, and it's a pleasure to watch the rapport between Connery, in his 50th year of acting, and Brown, in his first role. more

One can't underestimate the appeal of any movie constructed around Sean Connery's charm. more

If it were 10 minutes shorter, it would've been just the right length and almost wholly honest. more

One of those hybrid projects: a major studio film, big star, homely storyline, but tempered by an indie director working in his own idiosyncratic style. more

A nice-looking, nice-feeling exercise in conventionalism that sure could use a couple of transvestites and maybe a house falling from the sky. more

I saw this for the second time today. I am a sucker for movies of self-discovery, and this movie fits that bill - for both Jamal and Forrester. Much of the movie is spent in Forrester's condo where the two of them become friends while writing stories. I enjoyed their performances, and also Anna Paquin's role as a student who takes Jamal under her wing. If you like inspirational movies, watch this one. more

Mentor movies strike me as rather dull, frankly. Good Will Hunting made it work - this did not. Though it's been five years since I've seen this movie, nothing in it has stuck with me - it may seem like a long stretch of time, but there are many films that have left far more of an impact that I'd seen just as long ago. To be brief, this offers very little originality. more

This is a heartwarming movie with fine performances by Sean Connery, newcomer Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Nouri, and Anna Pacquin. Well directed by Gus Van Sant, the film revolves around the two main characters, William Forrester, played by Sean Connery, and sixteen year old Kamal, played by Rob Brown. William Forrester is a writer who, battling his own inner demons, has remained reclusive after writing a Pulitzer Prize winning novel some forty odd years earlier. Living alone in a changing neighborhood in the Bronx, he makes the acquaintance of Kamal, an intellectually gifted... more

Amazon Verified Purchase ( What's this? ) Here is another well done off-the-mainstream movie that Hollywood decides to surprise us with every so often. It is a film which examines a curious friendship which is forged between a young black youth (Jamal, played by Rob Brown) and an aging, reclusive white author (William Forrester, played by Sean Connery). The movie invokes the directorial talents of Gus Van Sant, and there are a few obvious parallels between it and "Good Will Hunting," also directed by Van Sant. To SOME extent, Jamal is the liberal arts counterpart to the math/science... more

In "Finding Forrester" you can find no better story! Finding Forrester is just a wonderful, melodramatic tale that is told from the heart and is quite uplifting. Sean Connery gives a stunning performance as an agoraphobic man devastated by personal loss. Newcomer Rob Brown's performance as an extremely intelligent, but held back by his surroundings youth is nothing less than outstanding and Anna Paquin whose performance is right on with her usual high standards. The premise: MINOR SPOILER The main character played by Rob Brown is an extraordinarily intelligent sixteen year old living in... more