MOVIE COMPANY: Columbia TriStar
CAST: Starring Sean Connery, Robert Brown, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, F. Murray Abraham, Matt Damon and more.
DIRECTED BY: Gus Van Sant
WRITTEN BY: Mike Rich
RATING: Rated PG-13
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0181536
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama
DURATION: 136 minutes
Jamal Wallace (Robert Brown) is an inner-city kid from the Bronx who has an aptness at basketball and a genius at writing. While always a C student, Jamal comes to the attention of a prestigious New York prep school when he scores highly on his standardized tests. While Jamal is given a heavy load at his new school, both he and the school know that the real reason they took him on is for his prowess on the court. Befriended by fellow student Claire (Anna Paquin) and helped along by Pulitzer-prize winning author and recluse William Forrester (Sean Connery), Jamal pursues his dreams both on and off the court while overcoming obstacles placed by his bitter literature teacher. As Jamal is shaped by Forrester, he finds that he is changing the old writer as well, forcing him to confront his past…and his future. (IMDB)
DVD EXTRAS:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• HBO Featurette, Found: Robert Brown Featurette, two choir videos
• Commentary by director
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats
KNOWN DVD SECRET(S):Â None that I know of
DVD REVIEW:
If there is one film that was underrated and left many people asking what movie should of been selected for Academy Award nomination, “Finding Forrester” is that movie.
Gus Van Sant directed a great movie with “Good Will Hunting” and is back again with a different but similar story. It’s a beautiful film about an African American student Jamal Wallace from the Bronx and a recluse/yet very popular author William Forester.
How both work together and help each other despite their cultural backgrounds. The friendships that develops and the institution/professor’s unwillingness to accept that a Black kid from the Bronx could write beautifully.
The DVD is beautiful and the audio is typical of a dialogue film. The special features are pretty cool with the HBO featurette and also how they found Robert Brown for this film. Also, they included two choir videos and these people can sing! Very cool special features including trailers for films of people who were part of the cast.
Again it’s a shame this movie wasn’t selected for even an “Academy Award” nomination but I guess the selection board were to enthralled with “Chocalat” instead. Anyway, this is a very good film and definitely highly recommended!
THE MOVIE:Â A
THE DVD EXTRAS:Â A
THE DVD OVERALL:Â A