Finding Forrester (2000)

This infamous line is pretty much all people remember when they think of Gus Van Sant's FINDING FORRESTER


And indeed, hearing Sean Connery say something like that is pretty hilarious

But the truth of the matter is that it's just a tossed off moment of dialog, and it's delivered off hand as Connery is going to sleep. It's not part of the climax of the film

The film isn't terrible, it's just not great. It's a lesser movie in Connery's filmography, but it's by no means the embarrassment that that oft quoted line would have you think it might be. To put it bluntly, it's no LXG. I think you have to be kind of impressed that Connery took some degree of risk by working with Van Sant and taking a role slightly out of his comfort zone.

FINDING FORRESTER is part of the "inner city students can write too!" sub genre, a genre that plenty of awful films like "FREEDOM WRITERS" call home

FF is not anywhere near as bad as FW, and it has many worth while elements. Sure, Connery is not really "acting" throughout most of the films running time, but there are few better actors you could ask for as company when settling in to watch a two hour movie. Sure, there are only a few moments in the film where it could be said that Connery is even emoting at all, but you know what? Those moments are pretty good

The main bad guy (Evil Goatee Teacher) is alot of fun, and I really did care about Jamal's struggle to prove his intellect. Indeed, accusations of stupidity have great resonance with me (Ahem...), and I felt that the movie did a good job of depicting the struggles people such as Jamal face. The climactic scene where JD Sa-, er William Foster shows up to defend Jamal is pretty cathartic.

Until last night, I'd only seen the movie once* before. I vaguely remember having gone to see it in theaters with a friend, back in The Year Two Thousand. Most of the film had faded from memory, to be replaced with my mind's own interpretation of the man/now/dog line. It turns out that little of the film is as I remembered it, including Connery's delivery of that classic line


I'd say people should check it out, if they haven't seen it in a while. I feel confident saying you'll find it more worth while than you perhaps remember it being

PS I can't help but think it would have been pretty much the coolest thing ever if in the scene where Connery shows up to the writing contest, when the Evil Goatee Teacher incredulously asks in front of the faculty and entire student body "You're a friend of Jamal Wallace?", if Connery had replied matter-of-factly in that whistling Scottish brogue "He's the man now, dog"

I like to imagine the room would have erupted in cheers at that point

But that's just how I'd have written the script

*I feel like I may have rented it on video at some point too, but I really don't remember