The intellectually gifted but unguided Jamal Wallace from
the Bronx gets a scholarship to a top prep school after a standardized test
reveals his true abilities. While he
navigates an alien social world where he is seen merely as the black jock
basketball star, his secret passion for writing is discovered by a reclusive
author in his home neighborhood. This
reclusive author, William Forrester (played by Sean Connery) develops a
friendship with him and becomes his mentor for writing. Like the movie it is
often compared to, “Good Will Hunting”, it focuses much on the struggle to
develop and accept one’s talents and individuality. While the mentoring
relationship smacks of “Good Will Hunting” rip-off, the film is truly a
distinctive story. “Finding Forrester”
focuses much more on the mentor figure’s own complexes with life, and uses the
outlook-change of the mentor to really clinch the movie’s end. Melodrama surges
now and then, mostly during writing and heart-to-heart sessions between Wallace
and Forrester, but the rest of the film is relatively believable and
well-done.
The J.D. Salinger Connection:If you haven’t already guessed, the reclusive
author character, William Forrester, is based on J.D. Salinger. The film indulges the lonely genius-type
quite a bit, as Connery’s character scoffs at his literary critics, traverses
around an apartment full of books and papers and spouts about the art of
writing with an air of frustration with the world’s glamorization of it. It’s not exactly a presumptuous portrayal of just
Salinger but really more of a light caricature of solitary geniuses and eccentric
artists in general. It’s an ambitious manifestation of all the scrutiny and
theories about Salinger’s real-life hermitage and his views on his own
writing. In short, it tries to fully
portray Salinger’s mind (or a Salinger-like mind) with a lot of emphasis on his
assumed neurosis and emotions. In a
gossipy way, it’s enjoyable to watch as a complete depiction of his mythic
character. Who knows, perhaps it is
entirely accurate.