It may be true that everyone who doesn’t have family, or doesn’t feel their family is whole, is somehow – whether they are aware or not – always searching for it. We may search in different ways, and with different degrees of success, but we search.
Jamal Wallace ( Robert Brown) is searching for family, although he doesn’t know it. An awesome basketball player and the owner of a prodigious intellect, 16-year-old Jamal is missing a father and direction in his life. William Forrester ( Sean Connery) is also searching for family, and he too doesn’t know it. Forrester is a 70-year-old reclusive author who lives alone in a grimy Bronx apartment. A Pullitzer Prize winner half a century earlier, Forrester’s career and enthusiasm for the world has been at low ebb for decades. A personal loss has much to do with his stagnation.
When Jamal and Forrester meet – purely by chance – an unusual and ultimately rich relationship develops. Forrester needs company beyond his three television sets. Jamal needs a mentor to help him focus his intellect at school. He’s been recruited by a prestigious private school – for his basketball talent and the promise of his aptitude test results. And now he’s got work to do to improve on his ‘C’ grades.
This odd couple’s developing relationship is at the centre of Finding Forrester, and much of this is interesting stuff. Forrester has lessons to teach Jamal, and eventually, the youngster returns the favour. Their time together at Forrester’s apartment makes for some enjoyable scenes. This is enhanced by strong performances by Connery and Brown, who play well off each other. Connery, never known for passionate or deep performances, makes Forrester perplexing and likeable, in a crusty old man kind of way. Brown is quietly strong as the unusually talented young man who learns from his mentor while gently pulling the old man out of his shell. His basketball skills are also excellent.
Unfortunately, Finding Forrester is saddled with a ‘Hollywood moment’ – an irritating artifice that often transforms otherwise interesting films into hopelessly unbelievable – and unsatisfying – fantasy. This moment is telegraphed early on, leaving us to wait for the inevitable disappointment.
While this movie has a distinctive look – judicious use of handheld cameras, interesting lighting and solid coverage of the basketball action, it seems that this script was put through the ‘Hollywood wringer’ far too many times – squeezing out any real sense that Finding Forrester might be something different. For example, the filmmakers also didn’t have the courage to allow Jamal’s relationship with Claire Spence ( Anna Paquin) to develop beyond flirtation, presumably in the interests of keeping the narrative clean and avoiding the discomfort an interracial love subplot might create for some audience members.
We also could do without the simplistic villain, teacher X ( F. Murray Abraham). While Abraham does a solid job of delivering his lines, such a one-dimensional character does little to enhance the depth or credibility of the film.
This movie is one of my favourites.