I still can't think of anything to write about "Finding Forrester". I really don't connect with this movie, or even like it a whole bunch. Not to mention that, at least in the case of the main character, there really isn't any actual character growth in the movie. I'd rather write about character development in a movie like Saw, which features virtual no character development, but at least doesn't bother pretending to.

Even writing about a video game storyline seems like it would be easier. I really just don't like this movie.

Here is a plot summary, as I have watched this piece of shit about 30 times now"

Jamal is a stereotypical black kid living in the Bronx. He does very poorly in school, and hopes to play basketball some day. This changes as a result of two things:

1. He turns out to be brilliant, something that apparently went unnoticed throughout the first 17 years of his life, but which comes to light after he takes some type of aptitude test at school. This, plus his basketball ability, earn him a spot at some posh academy.

2. While breaking into Sean Connory's house, he forgets his backpack when Connory startles him. His backpack contains some writing (no, you don't actually get to hear any of this "Brilliant" prose, excepting a little bit in the last 5 minutes of the movie), which Connory, a reclusive author, reads and marks. Jamal goes back for his bag, and becomes friends with the old man (who apparently forgets that he had to chase the guy out with a knife only a day earlier).

After that, he starts to excel at both basketball, and writing. I think the character development is in here somewhere, though it's horribly done, as Jamal basically did both those things at the start of the movie. While the relationship with Connory improves his writing skills, and does indeed help change Connory's character, it really doesn't do shit for Jamal's development, most of which apparently happens off screen.

Nothing much really happens. Besides the first and last 20 minutes, the movie may as well have been a series of "Jamal workin' the typewriter" and "Jamal shootin' hoops" montages, since virtually no important dialog takes place, and the story doesn't advance. At one point, Jamal is walking down the street at night, and a cop car passes him with the lights flashing. Time slows ever so slightly as Jamal glaces over his shoulder at the 5-0. Starved for some sort of plot development, both Lisa and I came up with what turned out to be wild and radical suppositions for what was about to happen next. Did something happen to the black guy he lives with (alluded to being his brother, though being a movie about a black guy, the word "brother" is somewhat difficult to put into a specific context), or his moms? Is Jamal about to be hasseled over nothing, potentially destroying his future? The suspense builds, and the scene changes to... Typewriter montage. This is arguably the most exciting moment in the movie, on par with the moment you think Jamal may have found a rival on his own basketball squad (who doesn't come back in the movie after his first appearance).

The movie more or less climaxes with Jamal missing two penalty shots, which is supposed to show he's changed his focus from basketball to writing. As he previously sunk fifty identical shots earlier in the movie, it's supposedly implied he intentionally threw the game, something I have issue with for two reasons:

1. He denies throwing the game untill the very end of the movie. That said, when he goes to play basketball with his friends (who have also developed, becoming more accepting of his literary ways)as the credits roll at the end of the film, he sucks horribly, and can't sink a shot. This leads me to think he's just bullshitting Connory, and the more I think about it, the less I can distinctly remember him even clearly stating he missed on purpose.

2. It doesn't really make much sense. By throwing the game, he risked getting kicked out of school, something only prevented by Connory finally leaving his apartment (moar developmentz!) and coming to the school to back Jamal up. Besides that, he also pissed off a ton of people. Had he won, it's not like he wouldn't have been allowed to write shit anymore. He just would have also been a state champion basketball player, as well as a "brilliant" writer. To compound this, his reasons for throwing the game more or less come down to his dislike of his english teacher and girlfriend's dad.

Really, when I watch this movie, it reminds me of the time I tried to make a bong out of galvanized piping, a socket set, and this really cool skull jar I used to have. While it was a wicked and ambitious concept, it ended up being loosely thrown together due to poor materials and lack of specific plans, and impatience. It turned out to be neat looking but completely non-functional as a smoking device. This movie is that bong. It aims high, with a good message and all, but it's like they forgot to plan how to get from point A to point B, and I honestly have to wonder if they even bothered to write a script, given that there are maybe 30 sentences within the entire movie that actually relate to anything that's going on.

Alternatively, it's alot like American History X, provided you either end the movie with everyone still being a skinhead, or only watch the first and last 15 minutes of it, ignoring the excitment of a gunshot in the last five or so.

I don't know. Watching this movie the first time was as stimulating as trying to escape a wheel-chain bound zombie. Twice was like trying to find meaning in the raindrops on your windshield during a mushroom trip, and now that I'm on my 10th or so time around, I really wish I could "Find Forrester" myself and kick his ass, as I've seen this shitty film enough times to probably successfully make an intelligent and "true to home" porno spoof out of it (which would be titled Fucking Forrester, after the numerous times I've thought exactly that), and still can't finish this essay.