Finding Forrester

Sean Connery bites off a movie star size chunk of a role and chews thoroughly in “Finding Forrester,” the new movie from director Gus Van Sant. Now, Van Sant also directed “Good Will Hunting,” and the latter has been compared to the former in a variety of ways, most of them unflattering. I don’t think that’s really fair to either picture. Both, of course, have as a central theme a hidden genius struggling to unleash his talent without losing his roots. “Good Will Hunting” is actually the better of the two pictures, but “Finding Forrester” has a bit more on its mind; it throws in the element of race and adds the story of a reclusive legend who becomes mentor to the young talent. Deep in the heart of the Bronx lives 16 year-old Jamal Wallace (an effective Robert Brown), just a regular kid hanging with his buddies, playing basketball on the neighborhood courts.

What his friends don’t know is that he reads extensively and writes all of the time. Jamal conceals his interests out of a very believable adolescent fear of being ostracized by his peers. Overlooking the basketball courts where they play is an aging apartment building, one of whose occupants is a mysterious man referred to by the kids as “The Window.” Many myths surround The Window; he has become an urban legend in his own right. One night, on a dare, Jamal sneaks into The Window’s apartment, and when he is frightened off he leaves his backpack, complete with his writing, behind. When eventually it is returned to him, the writing has been corrected in red by someone prone to making notes like, “constipated thinking,” and “where are you taking me?” Intrigued by this ghost editing, Jamal manages to strike up a fragile friendship with the mysterious Window, whom we come to learn is none other than the legendary William Forrester, a Salinger-esque figure who wrote one classic novel (called “Avalon Landing”) and then dropped out of sight. “Finding Forrester” concerns itself with the growing friendship between Jamal and Forrester, and the way they both, in the manner of Hollywood friendships forever, learn from each other.

This aspect of the movie is fairly successful; there are smart, amusing exchanges between the two characters as they challenge and provoke each other. Where the film falls short is in its rather elementary attempts to explore the foundations of genius, and in its “Elements of Style”-like discussions of what makes writing good. The burden of trying to write well enough to write about great writing must be immense, and screenwriter Rich is not quite up to the task. Most of what passes for Forrester’s genius sounds a bit prosaic to me. “Finding Forrester” stumbles further in its melodramatic depiction of Jamal’s recruitment by, and enrollment in, an exclusive Manhattan prep school. The school wants him mostly for his basketball skills (at least the film is honest enough to admit this), but Jamal surprises them by excelling academically as well.

Once there, he begins spending time with the lovely Claire (Paquin), daughter of one of the school’s richest benefactors, although the film is too genteel (timid?) to allow the relationship to blossom into an actual romance. (It also leaves unexplored the rivalry between Jamal and another African-American kid on the school's basketball team, a story line laden with interesting possibilities.) However, Jamal runs afoul of the embittered Professor Crawford (Abraham, hamstrung by this clichéd “bad guy” role), who decides it is his mission in life to reveal Jamal as a fraud. Predictably, Jamal gets into a jam with Crawford, and, just as predictably, Forrester must overcome his natural reclusiveness to save the day. “Finding Forrester” is earnest, perhaps to a fault, and while it does not shy away from the class and race conflicts that lend the story texture, it does present them in a fashion that can be best described as delicate.

But the ending of the film is pure Hollywood hokum, and not even first-rate hokum at that. Van Sant actually bungles the ending; the picture runs out of steam at what should have been the climactic moment. Van Sant can’t quite seem to to find a clean, satisfying way to end it. He keeps tacking things on, including a distracting cameo from Matt (“Will Hunting”) Damon himself. The best thing about “Finding Forrester” are the two principals. Robert Brown gives a natural, unforced performance. Connery has a lot of fun with the role of Forrester, and he is quite entertaining. When the movie attempts to deconstruct William Forrester and his novel, however, it actually diminishes the character by taking away the mystery of his brilliance. True genius is never so easily explained in real life as it is in Hollywood. (1/20/2001)