Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

In a movie that brings together two disparate cultures, and two actors with talent, FINDING FORRESTER is a movie I can recommend to everyone. It features Sean Connery and Rob Brown, with F. Murray Abraham, Anna Pacquin, and Busta Rhymes in supporting roles.

The story is a simple one, and oft told, with variations. It is moving and universal. It extols values that we may mourn as lost on the present generation, and it crosses lines. The setting is Brooklyn, in a neighborhood that has evolved in the past 50 years.

The photography is outstanding, especially in some of the close face shots, the moving action scenes on the basketball court, and in showing some of the old building architecture that is as much a part of the Big Apple and the surrounding bouroughs as the subway system.

THE PLOT

A young basketball player, Jamal Wallace, in Brooklyn, is out playing ball with his friends. As an aside, they look up to an old building at "The Window" where a mysterious hermit lives. They see him by the window, sometimes watching. Since no one knows him, and he is a mystery, talk builds his legend, and, on a dare, Jamal goes up the fire escape to "break into" his apartment, and "take something out" to prove he was there.

Jamal is surprised and runs off leaving his book bag. A little time passes and Jamal's life is about to change, in many ways. Always a safely mediocre student, Jamal has focused his efforts at school on the basketball court. It is here that he finds the acceptance of his peers and a way to excel without betraying his friends or family, or exposing his sensitivity to anyone. But he has a secret life. He writes, in closely guarded notebooks, and has been doing this for years since his father "left".

He has taken apptitude or college pre- tests( and whether these were SATs or other tests, we are not told) at school and his facade is shattered by his impossibly high scores.
Immediately, he is offered a scholarship at a prestigious prep school in Manhattan. The recruiter is not oblivious to young Jamal's other skills, on the basketball court.

Jamal is distressed by the loss of his backpack in which he has kept his carefully guarded writing notebooks. The faceless man behinfd the window tosses down his backpack one day, and Jamal eagerly checks for his precious notebooks. Every page includes comments and suggestions from the guy in the window (My favorite is "constipated thinking").

Intrigued, Jamal bravely knocks on the door, and makes contact with Forrester. At first he is a peculiar white guy who collects books, thousands of them, and who might help him with his writing. As he enters the prep school, he goes more and more often to the peculiar old white man for help with his writing, and the two get to know each other, and respect each other.

The older man is clearly a writer and Jamal learns just who is really is. It turns out he is William Forrester, who won a Pullitzer prize for his first and ONLY novel in 1953. For an undetermined amount of years he has been a recluse, rarely leaving his apartment. He has money, and his groceries and other needs are delivered weekly. He drinks a bit.

It is immediately clear that Jamal is learning from Forrester. It is clear that Forrester serves a father-teacher role in young Jamal's life.. What is not immediately clear is how much young Jamal affects the older man. What becomes increasingly clear as time goes on is the depth of the friendship they have created, and how each is helped by the other.

A crisis develops for Jamal in the championship game for his new school. A lot rides on the game, for Jamal. His education. His future. Jamal has made an enemy in his new school. The writing professor believes that young Jamal could not have truly written his competition piece, and Jamal does not reveal his friendship with Forrester. It points to the other lesson to be learned, that of integrity.

I would be cheating you if I revealed more of this story, but let me say that it is truly a message of hope. If you have a heart, it will be touched by this movie.

THE MESSAGES

Jamal Wallace is a sixteen year old black basketball player, who hangs with his friends, and maintains his status in his peer group. Although he seldom goes deep into the unintelligible ghetto patter (nor does his friends, to their credit) it is obvious that he is OF the culture. But it is also obvious that he transcends his culture. One of the first confrontations with Forrester makes him look beyond the black and white of the racial issue, and deeper into his own soul. On what level are we truly family?

The second message is that of friendship. No one can be lead where they will not go, but each can be made to view the world differently, through eyes different than their own. The whole world opens to us when we can see it differently.

THE CAST

SEAN CONNERY as William Forrester. My immediate impression of the veteran actor in this flick is "He looks bad!". Not just grungy in his pajamas, but actually not well. This role was magnificent for one of the best actors of our times, and it was delight to watch him work.

ROB BROWN as Jamal Wallace. This young man is also wonderful in his role, with amazingly beautiful eyes and a face where the eyes speak volumes. He is completely believable and the chemistry that develops between the two actors is as much a tribute to his ability as to the veteran. I was impressed and look forward to his developing career.

ANNA PACQUIN as the young friend of Jamal in his new school (my apologies for forgetting her name). Anna has a clarity about her performances and her presence is an absolute necessity to the plot to place young Jamal in the context of his changing environment. Her role was also extremely well done.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM- As Professor Crawford, the antigonist in the story. Disaffected by his own inability to puiblish (an act that was incidentally blocked by Forrester) he is a tyrant in the class room and the worst type of bigot, an intellectual bigot. He represents another block to the talented and less affluent subcultures in acquiring an education. The fact that his character is so pivotal in the story, but so seldom physically present is a tribute to the ability of this fine actor.

BUSTA RHYMES plays Jamal's older brother. I can't say anything bad about him either, since he is believable as the loving brother with a work ethic but without the native intelligence of young Jamal. It is also a way to express an older male as a viable role model for Jamal, even if he did not go "all the way" with his dreams.

Other credits go to the woman who played Jamal's mother, who has successfully instilled positive values of hard work in her family, and honesty in her boys. The absent father, an addict, was not part of the values of this struggling black family. I also liked the friends of Jamal, who stayed his friends and came to watch him play. It was not lost on me that the white boys at the new school were pretty much dorks.

RECOMMENDATION

You need to see this movie. It is going to be a classic. It is not an action thriller but a quiet movie about the life of the mind. It is the best movie I have seen this year in the theater, and I am looking forward to a time when I can have it in my collection and watch it over.

Recommended: Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older