Recommended movie: “Finding Forrester”
The first secret to writing is … writing
What could there be in common between a sportive teenager and a disillusioned writer, besides the fact that they both live in a badly known neighborhood? This little imagination exercise is to give you an idea of the central theme of the movie “Finding Forrester” (USA, 2000), which shows the unimaginable friendship between a sixteen-year-old black boy and a genius writer who has been cloistered for over forty years after the publication of his only book.
Residents of the Bronx, New York’s most violent neighborhood, Jamal (Rob Brown) and William Forrester (Sean Connery) only get to know each other because of a teenage gamble. Without anyone knowing his real identity, the writer lived in seclusion in his apartment, not even going out for shopping. The mystery about him was so great that the neighborhood knew him only by “Window”. There was a lot of rumors about the strange and violent person who lived there.
Due to a challenge from his friends, Jamal invades the apartment of “Window”, but is caught by the owner. On the run, he loses his backpack where his notebooks are. At school, Jamal receives the result of a national test, where he scored very high, which drew the attention of the board. Because of this result, and his basketball skill, he was invited to study at a sophisticated private school in Manhatan.
That same day, he gets his backpack back – literally falling from the sky – with his dear manuscripts full of corrections and notes. Curious, the young man looks for “Window”, being received with harshness. After some insistence, the young man is allowed into the apartment because they have found what they had in common: the talent for writing.
While improving his relationship with the strange hermit, Jamal begins his studies at the new school, being warmly welcomed by Claire (Anna Paquin), and suspiciously by Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), a professor of literature, who does not accept the idea that a basketball player from the Bronx might have talent as a writer.
Their rivalry peaks when Jamal applies a text in the school’s literary contest. Unfortunately, the young man had used the same title as an article published in a magazine by Forrester many years earlier. Charged by Crawford for plagiarism, he stands between leaving school or admitting the charge in writing.
More than just a teacher-student dispute, the film has its greatest value in the delicate building of the friendship between Jamal and Forrester, which causes changes in both lives. While Forrester manages to show the young man that he can be much more than just a Bronx boy, Jamal struggles to get the hermit out of hiding, causing him to exorcise his past ghosts.
With no special effects or grandiose scenarios, the film relies on a first-rate cast. In the role of Forrester, Sean Connery, the wonderful actor that only the most mature associate with the first 007. Connery perfectly creates his character, ranging from the irascibility of a loner to the invalid weakness of a lost child.
F. Murray Abraham consolidates his career in villain roles, reminiscent of the ruthless Salieri from “Amadeus” (USA,1984). Anna Paquin, the little girl from “The Piano” (AUS/NZ,1993), now a beautiful girl, shows that the Oscar nomination at age eleven years was no accident. And as protagonist, newcomer Rob Brown, a young New Yorker who played Jamal without ever doing theater or cinema before, would move from this movie to a solid career in television.
The movie was released on DVD with widescreen format, English, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles, and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in English, Spanish and Portuguese. As extras, a fifteen-minute special “Behind the Camera”, produced by HBO, the twelve-minute documentary “Found: Rob Brown”, deleted scenes, movie trailers, and filmography. Detail: All extras are subtitled.
In these times, where computer effects reign with absolutism, it is interesting to see an intelligent and sensitive film, where relationships between people show that the world is just the stage. It is remarkable Gus Van Sant’s direction, whose resume includes “Good Will Hunting” (USA, 1997), “Elephant” (USA, 2003), “Milk” (USA, 2008) and “Promised Land” (USA, 2012).