Review

Connery gives a career-topping performance as a brilliant, reclusive writer in this compelling drama from the director of Good Will Hunting. Sharing in common with that film the themes of mentorship and academia, Finding Forrester follows the friendship of 16-year-old Jamal (Brown), a high-school basketball star with a secret passion for writing, and William Forrester (Connery), a celebrated author who's as famous for his privacy as he is for his artistic output of one (Pulitzer Prize-winning) novel. The touching, often humorous story explores the bond which grows between them, and how each has something to teach the other. Connery is nothing short of great as the ultimately vulnerable Forrester, shading the writer with just the right mixture of arrogance and anxiety. Young Brown -- in his film debut -- keeps pace nicely with the seasoned cast around him.