Clearly Gus Van Sant is not the same director without the sharp writing of Damon and Affleck. Finding Forrester is a film with great potential, a fine cast, and some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in a movie. The script is long, far far too long, and is made even longer by the half-hearted attempts to work Anna Paquin and Michael Pitt's pointless characters into the plot. Busta turns a surprisingly dramatic performance as Jamal's content older brother, and Connery, Abraham, and Brown all demonstrate their polished acting skills, albeit hampered at times by an unwieldly script. All in all though, this movie is definitely worth sitting through once. The themes about triumph over adversity and the struggles of inner city students, while not particularly original, are compelling. And Van Sant never disappoints in the realm of the technical with his well-thought-out and well shot film. You won't walk away with your heart exactly aching for the plight of a lonely author and his African student-friend, but it does produce a certain fuzzy feeling.
Review of Finding Forrester
