Hey folks, I would have written up a review of this film myself... BUT a competitor... one who I thought was a friend.... informed me that the screening was at 7am instead of 7pm... there by draining what valuble rest cycles I had in advance of BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 2: THE OTHER CHEEK. So... I would love to give you my thoughts... BUT Judas aka Brute' aka Geek #2.... killed me and blamed it on my oldest friend.... but then, he's probably right. heheheh.... So, I will leave it to the great Capone to answer truthfully about the world that Van Sant directed...
Hey, Harry. In just a few short hours, I'm hopping on a plane bound for Austin and Butt-Numb-a-Thon 2. But before I go, I have to clean the slate of one more film I saw recently. Here's my look at the new Gus Van Sant film FINDING FORRESTER, with Sean Connery.
Director Gus Van Sant loves stories about diamonds in the rough, about young people who are in danger of having their true talents go undiscovered. In his earlier work (MAL NOCHE, DRUGSTORE COWBOY, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, TO DIE FOR), the young people in his films were often drifting in need of a stabilizing force in their life. Usually they didn‚t find one, or if they did, it led them down a dark and dangerous path. But with 1997‚s GOOD WILL HUNTING, he marked a turning point. In that film, the title character‚s talents were discovered, and that‚s when his real troubles began.
(I will ignore Van Sant‚s remake of PSYCHO and his piss-poor adaptation of EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES because I choose to.)
Now we have FINDING FORRESTER, which will undoubtedly draw numerous lazy-brained comparisons to GOOD WILL HUNTING because it, too, deals with a struggling kid with an academic gift, who discovers there are more problems associated with being „discovered‰ than there were being a face in the crowd. In FORRESTER, the gift is writing.
The setting is a struggling neighborhood in The Bronx. Sixteen-year-old Jamal (played by the 100% authentic and astonishingly good newcomer Robert Brown, in his first acting job ever) is an average student and an above-average basketball player. His high school issues him and his fellow students standard aptitude tests, and Jamal tests off the charts. His high scores (on and off the court) catch the attention of a local private (and mostly white) prep school, who also just happen to need a strong new player on their basketball team.
Jamal is scared to death of his potential, and the idea of being singled out from all his friends almost keeps him from accepting the private school‚s offer. He‚s rather scribble stories in one of his notebooks secretly than be seen caring about getting an education. One place he is allowed to excel in front of his friends is the basketball court. And one day, the group is shooting hoops when they catch a glimpse of someone watching them through a window of a run-down apartment building across the street. Over the years, legend about the man living in that apartment have grown. Some say he killed somebody and never leaves his residence for fear of being caught. Jamal‚s friends dare him to enter the apartment to take an item as proof that he doesn‚t believe the legends of the man known only as „The Window.‰
Not only does the occupant surprise Jamal in the apartment, but in his haste to exit the place, Jamal drops his backpack containing all of his notebooks of writing. The next day, the pack is unexpectedly dropped at Jamal‚s feet from several stories up, and all of his notebooks are returned with comments from „The Window.‰ Jamal wonder who this mysterious man is who dares to grade his work.
It turns out its Sean Connery, looking older and more his age than I‚ve ever seen him. I haven‚t really enjoyed much of Connery‚s work lately. THE ROCK was good, but not just because of him. THE AVENGERS and ENTRAPMENT were garbage. His taking place in the ensemble piece PLAYING BY HEART was a step in the right direction, but his role as long-lost novelist William Forrester here is exceptional. Like John Wayne in THE SHOOTIST or Clint Eastwood in UNFORGIVEN or Marlon Brando in THE FRESHMAN, nobody else could play this part but Connery. Forrester, we‚re told, wrote only one book 50 years earlier, but what a book. He won every major writing award and the high praise of all critics when it was published, and shortly thereafter, he disappeared. (Why he did so is one of the film‚s many mysteries that I will not ruin for you.)
Once Jamal figures out by accident who The Window really is, the two strike up an agreement whereby Forrester helps Jamal out with his writing if Jamal doesn‚t tell anybody who or where Forrester is. Not surprisingly, the two become friends, despite Forrester‚s tendency to drink himself into and angry sleep and Jamal‚s tendency to want to pry into William‚s personal life. Jamal‚s writing instructor (F. Murray Abraham, in a role that‚s a little too „villainy‰ for its own good) finds it hard to swallow that Jamal can be such a good athlete and an extremely talented writer, adding more levels of pressure to an already taxing stay at the new school.
Much better supporting performances come from Anna Paquin as a potential love interest for Jamal. The film doesn‚t ignore the racial components of their relationship, but doesn‚t make them a major issue either. Rapper Busta Rhymes is both funny and strangely moving as Jamal‚s older brother, who, despite being a supervisor at Yankee Stadium‚s parking lot, is a major influences and motivator in Jamal‚s life.
But the film is all about Connery. Without showboating or lapsing into emotional cheesiness, Connery gets us to care about him and the things that matter to him (especially Jamal). His issues are many, and the film wisely doesn‚t try to „cure‰ Connery of his shortcomings, but shows us how Jamal learns to deal with them, sometimes by not dealing with them. The fact that Forrester is clearly an alcoholic is never even mentioned, only observed. Connery holds back just enough to let us know that there‚s a lot of pain behind his gruff and slightly paranoid exterior. There‚s a very gut-wrenching scene where Jamal attempts to take William to a Knicks game, marking the first time in many years Forrester has stepped foot outside his apartment.
There are very few surprise in the FINDING FORRESTER script, written by first-time screenwriter Mike Rich, who wrote this piece while working as a new director and morning DJ for a radio station in Portland, Oregon. At the same time, the film is far from formulaic. The pleasure of FINDING FORRESTER is in the journey, not necessarily the destination, although the film has a great ending. The film‚s only real surprise comes in the form of a cameo in the film‚s final minutes. Add on top of all of these good things, a great soundtrack made up mostly of music by the likes of Miles Davis and Bill Frissell, and you have a truly enjoyable film-going experience, the kind you just want to sit back and take in. I had a good time with this one.
Send me a letta so Isa can breaka yur legs!
Capone
