Waste of Money.

A Major Disappointment

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie, Finding Forrester, just speaks to me. I have watched it over and over. Tremendous acting and the story is wonderful. I bought this for a friend who had surgery to pick them up.

I completely stole those words from reviewer: danhicks from Minnesota. (just wanted to create a one-liner) Oh its gotta be five lines minimum. One of the things in the movie I thought was under developed was the negative vibe between Jamal and the 'rich' black kid played by Matthew Noah Word. "You may think we're the same. We're not." Wow, that's such a horrible attitude.

The movie in my opinion is one of those movies that seem uninteresting, until watched that is. The movie Finding Forrester appears to be like a typical underdog type of movie where the main character would prove to be equal to or better than the people in a society. However, the movie has more to it than just that, the movie has something that is understood universally among us as humans, archetypes. Most people would not think of it at first but archetypes are present in all forms of movies and stories, but the simplest and basic ones tend to be the ones that attract us the most. The most noticeable archetypes used in the movie are The Hero (Jamal Wallace), The Mentor (William Forrester), The Villain (Professor Crawford), and The Journey.The movie starts out with Jamal in the Bronx, he is an exceptional basketball player and an outstanding writer, however, he makes low grades that are barely passing, even though he has the knowledge to make perfect grades. He does this just to not stand out from the community around him and fit in. He meets with William Forrester through a dare his friends gave him and ends up learning from him writing skills. Later on in the movie a prestigious school sends an invitation to Jamal to study there without having to pay any fees. He attends the school and from there his journey begins.One of the things that was great in the movie was breaking racial stereotypes and showing the viewers how anyone can succeed in anything no matter what their background is. This idea of anyone being able to succeed which is the journey of the hero in the movie, is directly related to the characters of both Jamal Wallace and professor Crawford, whereas Jamal is a person from a very bad background trying to succeed in a prestigious school and professor Crawford is trying to put him down due to that background of his. The movie starts out pretty slow at first but then starts to attract the viewer even more to it later on by giving the viewer hope and the want to know what happens next. Jamal as the hero faces many struggles in the movie such as him trying to fit in a different community, being accepted by his friends for his difference, and staying in the school which professor Crawford is trying to have him get kicked out of. The character of William Forrester also had a huge impact on the film where undergoes a lot of changes and ends up learning from Jamal even though he is the mentor.To wrap things up, the movie was very interesting in how it presents archetypes such as the hero and the villain in a normal everyday life kind of way rather than using superhuman powers which most people would relate to when thinking of both heroes and villains. It also had a special twist on the mentor archetype in which the mentor ends up learning from the pupil. Therefore, the movie was a great and very entertaining movie to watch.

Finding Forrester, written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus VanSant, is a drama filled film about a young African-American teenager who is from the very middle of the Bronks. Jamal Wallace, the teenage boy, played by Rob Brown, is not like most boys his age. Jamal has a talent, a talent that will surely change his life forever.When Jamal gets peer pressured into breaking into the creepy old man's window in the upstairs of the Bronks apartment building, something happens that he would have never expected. After losing his bag in the apartment in the wake of being spooked by the old man, he finds it in the street a day later, right below the window. Inside the bags he finds all of his writing graded so to speak. Jamal decides to go back to the apartment room and find out who it is, and after a little confrontation he is surprised to find out that the "creepy old man" is none other than the one and only William Forrester, played by Sean Connery. A few days later Jamal and his mother get called to the principal's office for a meeting only to find out that Jamal has been given the chance to go to a private school by the name of Mailor-Callow. Although he was skeptical, he takes the offer.Even though that it is not everything he was expecting, he still does not give up. With his new friend William Forrester helping him through it all, which to me makes him an archetypal hero, he starts doing great until a confrontation with Prof. Crawford or possibly a so called villain, played by F. Murray Abraham, leads to them finding out some interesting things out about one of Jamal's essays, things started to take a downfall. Worried that he might get kicked out, he had to find something to do. With no more options left, Forrester makes for a good surprise. The ending takes a turn that no one was expecting. It surely does not leave you hanging. This is the type of movie that you do not leave the theater mad about. Overall I would say this film is fit for many audiences. It has humor, drama, and even a little bit of action. In my opinion this movie would be a high four out of five stars.