Finding Forrester (2000)

“The key to a woman’s heart is an unexpected gift at an unexpected time. ” – Forrester

Number of Times Seen – 3 (Theater in 2000, 22 Apr 2008 and 10 Jul 2017)

Brief Synopsis – An inner-city prodigy is mentored by a reclusive writer after the two meet by accident.

My Take on it – This film was suppose to do for Sean Connery what Good Will Hunting (1996) was able to do for Robin Williams and since they share a director, the hype at the time truly made it seem so.

Unfortunately, the characters have little chemistry together and too many of their interactions feel forced instead of flowing like they should.

When watching a story about a student-mentor relationship, we want to feel a connection between them and instead there is too much of a disconnect here because the characters are so mismatched.

Normally, that kind of thing can be remedied with a better script, but in this case it just doesn’t work at all.

This is basically a story that feels as if it’s just going through a pre-planned and predictable arc that obviously reaches the places we expect it to.

Bottom Line – Not as good as it could have been. The story feels too forced and there is no real chemistry between the two main characters that would make this story feel more emotional; instead they feel too disconnected. The story goes through the motions and is extremely predictable.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Rob Brown got the role after initially auditioning as an extra. Brown had no aspirations of being an actor, and was only hoping to make some money to pay his 300 dollar cell phone bill. But Gus Van Sant invited him to audition for the role of Jamal, and liked his natural ability.  (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z