Rob's Movie Review

Movie: Finding Forrester

Director: Gus Van Sant

Starring: Sean Connery, Rob Brown, Anna Paquin, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Mullica

What it's about: A black basketball player named Jamal Wallace also has a gift for writing that is discovered by a recluse novelist named William Forrester. Forrester helps the student develop his writing skills while Jamal helps the novelist learn about life outside of his Manhattan apartment.

What I thought: It was a pretty good movie. A bit predictable but none the less pretty good. It was done by the same guy who did Good Will Hunting so you could kind of tell right from that what the plot of the story was gonna be. A kid with a hidden talent has that talent brought out by someone who is talented yet troubled in their own way.
I thought Sean did a great job as the recluse, adding just the right amount of humor into his performance to make it believable. Rob Brown did a good job as the kid trying to learn from "the Master" but there was so much in this movie that did sit with me all that well. They seemed to want to add a love story line (don't they always through) but it never really took off. Either that or the director was forced into it and made it happen more off camera than on. There was also the rivalry with a fellow basketball player from his new school but that just seemed to be to show off Jamal's basketball skill and again didn't go anywhere.
So why the rating? Well, like I said it was a good movie, I had no trouble believing the story but it was predictable, had story lines that went no where when they should have or it had stories that should not have even been in the movie at all. I would have given it about a 2 1/2 score but the end was a nice twist to the movie so that's why it got what it got.

Rob's Rating (out of five bags)

NEW! Sign up for the movie update list

Back


Movie:	Finding Forrester
Director:	Gus Van Sant
Starring:	Sean Connery, Rob Brown, Anna Paquin, F. Murray Abraham, Tom Mullica
What it's about:	A black basketball player named Jamal Wallace also has a gift for writing that is discovered by a recluse novelist named William Forrester. Forrester helps the student develop his writing skills while Jamal helps the novelist learn about life outside of his Manhattan apartment.
What I thought:	It was a pretty good movie. A bit predictable but none the less pretty good. It was done by the same guy who did Good Will Hunting so you could kind of tell right from that what the plot of the story was gonna be. A kid with a hidden talent has that talent brought out by someone who is talented yet troubled in their own way. I thought Sean did a great job as the recluse, adding just the right amount of humor into his performance to make it believable. Rob Brown did a good job as the kid trying to learn from "the Master" but there was so much in this movie that did sit with me all that well. They seemed to want to add a love story line (don't they always through) but it never really took off. Either that or the director was forced into it and made it happen more off camera than on. There was also the rivalry with a fellow basketball player from his new school but that just seemed to be to show off Jamal's basketball skill and again didn't go anywhere. So why the rating? Well, like I said it was a good movie, I had no trouble believing the story but it was predictable, had story lines that went no where when they should have or it had stories that should not have even been in the movie at all. I would have given it about a 2 1/2 score but the end was a nice twist to the movie so that's why it got what it got.