Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Gus Van Sant

Produced by: Laurence Mark, Rhonda Tollefson, & Sean Connery

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

Released: December 20, 2000 NY/LA; January 12, 2001 Wide

Drama and Comedy 2 hrs. 15 min. An inspirational film from director Gus Van Sant, FINDING FORRESTER focuses on the relationship between Jamal Wallace (Robert Brown), an African-American high school student with a college basketball scholarship, and a talented novelist (Sean Connery). The novelist realizes that Jamal has a gift for writing and encourages him to pursue it. Meanwhile, Jamal teaches the writer a few lessons about life.

Finding Forrester managed to do what many of its predecessors couldn’t by actually being entertaining despite borrowing several elements from critically-acclaimed Good Will Hunting. One those borrowed elements would have to be the talented actor Matt Damon, who cameos as Mr. Forrester’s lawyer near the end of the feature. The timing and way the scene was handled made the cameo quite a delight considering thoughts of Hunting had to be on the minds of many movie-goers. The few problems with feature would have to include the longer then needed time length and some side stories including the romantic relationship between two characters that aren’t explored fully in the film. Outside of those small complaints, Finding Forrester succeeds at being quite an entertaining romp despite feeling all too familiar to movie-goers. Not as entertaining as Good Will Hunting but it can be said that filmmakers never intended that to happen.