Movie Review On Finding Forrester - Review

Finding Forrester, Gus Van Sant's 2000 follow-up to his critically acclaimed film Good Will Hunting, follows a young black youth named Jamal (Rob Brown) whose entrance into a well-respected private high school coincides with his befriending of an eccentric, reclusive Salinger-like fiction writer (Sean Connery), who teaches him to cultivate his writing skills. The film centers around this mentor-mentee relationship, as Forrester befriends someone for the first time in decades, while Jamal finds someone who believes in the things he is actually passionate about. Finding Forrester is a sentimental, treacly yet fairly effective movie that touches on ideas of anti-intellectualism, racism, inner-city problems, and the tortured nature of the artist (and whether or not that is self-imposed).
The film itself touches on themes of inner-city poverty, and the diminished expectations placed upon young black men. At the start of the film, Van Sant shows Jamal sleeping in his bedroom surrounded by books - this is marked as an intentionally idiosyncratic image. We do not normally see young black men this interested in literature, and the director plays on those expectations by having Jamal hide his intellect from his friends. It is only through "finding Forrester" that he learns to cultivate his passion for writing, and learns to subvert the expectations placed on him. Even the prestigious high school he attends only accepts him because he is good at basketball; even this presumption is based largely upon his color. Through the character of Jamal, Gus Van Sant shows a man struggling against stereotypes, only finding help in a fellow outcast (Forrester) who can help guide him in his journey.
The backstory to Connery's character of William Forrester is, admittedly, one of the most apparent pieces of drama in the film, seeming manufactured for the sake of giving the lead a tragic reason for becoming a recluse. The family issues with his brother, the struggle his brother had with alcohol, and the careful choices that coincidentally led to his brother's death are just tragic enough to make Forrester a grumpy recluse, without giving him any actual flaws that he needs to punish himself for. By making the chief tragedy-causing decision (refusing to drive home one night) something that Forrester was reasonable in doing, the film somewhat falters; it is difficult to legitimately blame Forrester for this decision, and so it is hard to believe he would make such a dramatic life-altering decision to be a hermit-like curmudgeon.
Linking the two possible routes of Jamal's life (basketball and writing) into a single climax, Van Sant shows Jamal actively making the choice to abandon the role that is expected of him (an African-American making it to college on a basketball scholarship) by failing to make two free throws at the championship game. This is an implicitly intentional move on his part, as he had figured out that his status as a star basketball player was being given more weight (likely due to his race and the expectations placed on him) than the integrity of his writing.
The film, despite its manufactured drama at times, had a tremendous effect on me. Much like his previous effort, Good Will Hunting, Van Sant knows how to capture adolescent and young adult anxiety, especially with regards to finding ways to succeed in an increasingly intellectual and fast-paced world. Jamal, for example, is torn between hiding his true passion for writing and playing along with the thing that might get him the biggest chance at success - playing basketball. Despite this pursuit being ultimately unfulfilling, no one believes that he would be an accomplished writer; his professor (F. Murray Abraham) doubts that his writing could be as skilled and articulate as it is, calling it "too good" and accusing Jamal of plagiarism. It is then the main focus of Jamal's journey to subvert those assumptions and prove himself to be just as good at writing as William Forester.
Van Sant directs the film with a great deal of realism and verisimilitude; the subtle, downplayed interactions between many of the characters helps to sell the illusion that these are real things happening to real people. When Jamal gradually but strongly forms his relationship with Forrester, we are drawn into the film, and we immerse ourselves in the characters, having the drama come from real human situations instead of spectacle-based insanity. While there is a great deal of coincidence and fairy-tale antirealism still at play in the movie - Forrester's status as the "window," the coincidences that lead to the claims of plagiarism against Jamal - Van Sant grounds the movie just enough that we can believe the events of these scenes are really happening to these characters.
The film is remarkably similar to Good Will Hunting in structure - like Will Hunting, Jamal is a struggling youth, disenfranchised and alone, carrying a secret genius that must be cultivated by an old, grizzled and disillusioned mentor (Connery in this film, Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting). However, in this film, the relationship remains squarely with Forrester and Jamal, while Will Hunting had to deal with his girlfriend and best friend at the same time. While in that movie, Will Hunting's problems were internal and self-destructive, here Jamal's obstacles are purely eternal - he is effectively a suffering saint with limitless potential, and he does very little wrong with his own knowledge. His relationship with Forrester is tumultuous, but it is Forrester who changes the most to accommodate Jamal's dreams, instead of Will Hunting's need to change in his respective film. Because of these comparisons, Finding Forrester feels almost like a counterpoint to Good Will Hunting, as Jamal fights societal pressures and expectations to become who he needs to be, changing the mind of an old, crotchety mentor in the process.
In conclusion, Finding Forrester is a very effective movie that illustrates the need to reexamine cultural stereotypes and assumptions of low-income African-American youths; Jamal is trapped between the world of the "dumb black basketball player who dunks his way to success" and the sensitive writer that he is inside. Both Rob Brown and Sean Connery give sensitive, yet dynamic performances in their respective roles, and infuse the characters with a great degree of believability. Van Sant creates a very nuanced and down-to-earth film that deeply explores human relationships and these societal concerns, though he does occasionally lapse into melodrama with tragic backstories and convoluted plot developments. All in all, however, it is a worthy successor (and spiritual sister) to Good Will Hunting, both movies featuring youth attempting to improve their circumstances and learn more about themselves.