Finding Forrester-Film review

The movie “Finding Forrester”, shot in the USA in 2000 was directed by Gus Van Sant who also directed e.g. “Good will hunting”(1997). “Finding Forrester” cost around 43 million US-Dollar. Apperently this investment has paid off. In 2000 and 2001 the movie was nominated  for numerous national and international awards. It earned awesome criticism, especially from quality newspapers.

The protagonists of this drama which was written by Mike Rich are William Forrester (Sean Connery) and Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown). Jamal is a 16-year-old black boy, living in the Bronx, New York. On one side he is keen on playing basketball, on the other side he has got an exceptional talent for reading, writing and literature in general. One day Jamal meets William Forrester, a famous author who only wrote a single book. Years ago he retired from public life and put on a fake name. Mr. Forrester and Jamal are getting friends. It’s a friendship that changes their lives. While a profeesor at school puts Jamal’s skills to the test, the everyday life at school turns out to be awkard. Does Jamal manage to convince the professor of the truth and to prove his strength? And what about William Forrester? Is he going to help Jamal?

At the beginning of the movie William Forrester is not really communicative. He lives alone between thousands of of books. The reason he did not write a second book was that he did not like the comments by the readers on his first writing. Ostensibly nobody understood the message he wanted to transmit. Later on we he see the other site of his character. Jamal shows him the life from the “sunny” side and William seems to be thankful.

I actually enjoyed wachting the movie because of its story and actors. In my view it is an extraordinary story, with a perfect realization by the actors. My favourite scenes are the conversations between Jamal and William. They provide excellent entertainment on a high level.

Messages could be: “Keep on hoping”, or “Never give up your dreams”, or “It does not matter if you are white or black”. In my opinion it is pretty difficlut to find one central message. The movie deals with many topics.

All in all I highly recommend this movie. It is challenging, entertaining and in parts funny. There are no actions scenes. Despite that the movie does not lose any quality. Proofes are several nominations of international awards. To my mind it is realistic movie with heart which shows happy and sad moments in life.