Finding Forrester

An afro-american teen writing prodigy finds a mentor in a reclusive author.

• Director:Gus Van Sant
• Genre:Drama
• Runtime:136 minutes

Cast

Sean Connery : William Forrester
Rob Brown : Jamal Wallace
F. Murray Abraham: Prof. Robert Crawford
Anna Paquin : Claire Spence
Busta Rhymes : Terrell Wallace

The movie opens with 16-year-old Jamal (Rob Brown) sleeping in his bedroom, which is stacked with books, and then jumping up to go meet his friends on the basketball court. While playing basketball, he and his friends watch a man drive up in his BMW and, apparently concerned with the inner city neighborhood, carefully locks his car before delivering groceries to somebody in the apartment building across the street from the boys. The friends all know of a recluse, William Forrester (Sean Connery), who lives on the top floor of the building across from the schoolyard and regularly notice him watching them from his window,although they never see his face.

Just one day after at school, one of the boys challenges Jamal to sneak into the apartment. The boys dare Jamal and he sneaks into Forrester’s apartment. Unusually the window is open and he climbs inside to discover the television blaring but Forrester is nowhere to be seen. He then finds and picks up a knife and puts it in his backpack. Suddenly Jamal is surprised by Forrester, he runs out of the apartment, leaving his backpack.

Even after Jamal’s failed burglary attempt Forrester is still watching them; Jamal sees that the mystery man has hung Jamal’s backpack up in the, firmly shut, window. Soon after the man in the BMW shows up again, and Jamal introduces himself, telling the man he will not do anything to the car, suggesting that the BMW is just a car like any other, but the man tells Jamal that a BMW is not just any car, implying that being poor, Jamal would not know much about BMW. Jamal then goes on to give a mini-lecture about the history of the BMW, putting the man in his place he adds “but I guess you knew that seeing as you lease one and all”. As Jamal and the man part, Jamal’s backpack falls from the sky and lands next to him. He picks it up and takes it back home where he looks through to make sure all of his notebooks and materials are still there. To his surprise, he finds his writing marked up.

Jamal goes to the apartment and knocks on the door, apologizing for the previous intrusion and asking Forrester if he would look at more of his work. Forrester responds that he would like to first see 5,000 words on why Jamal should “stay the fuck out of his home”, which Jamal promptly completes in his bedroom. Read more

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