Jamal Williams acted by Rob Brown plays a very intelligent 16-year-old high school student in the movie Finding Forrester. In the beginning he was attending a school where he felt the need to maintain a C average to fit in. Jamal had a passion for basketball and on the court is where he let his true talent show. Jamal later on, gets accepted into a private school and becomes not only a star on the court but in his English class and beyond. Although Jamal is the main character it wouldn't be much of a movie without his friend, “The Window man,” acted by Sean Connery.  

This film was distributed by Columbia pictures on December 20 in 2000 with a pg13 rating. I decided to review it now after recently watching it in my creative writing class. I think the main message of this movie was that it you should never hide your true self. This is where, “The window man,” who later we find out is William Forrester, comes into the  movie. Jamal breaks into William’s apartment after getting a little too curious about who was behind the window. Jamal left his bag there while trying to escape. Jamal’s bag was filled with journals of his writings. William dropped his bag out of the window as Jamal was walking by. He looked through the journals and realized that William went through and made comments and  corrections, on almost every page. Jamal then went back to Williams apartment to find out why he made the comments he did, this was the first real visit of many visits Jamal and William have, throughout the movie.

William helped Jamal express his love for literature by coaching him through his writing. He showed him that he is a great writer and he should write even if it is not typically what people do  where he is from. Jamal reminded Willam that he is an inspirational writer and although things are rough for him that is no reason to not go on with his life.

If this movie sounds favorable to you director Gus  Sant also directs, Psycho released in 1998 and a more recent movie of Don’t Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot released in 2018. Each producer (Sean Connery, Rhonda Tollefson, and Laurence Mark) also have other  movies they are part of. Overall I give this drama genre movie a ten out of ten rating. I think the writer of this movie  Mike Rich did a great job expressing a message to his audience. This is not a cliffhanger movie but I feel like there could definitely be a prequel. If you're looking for a movie for the next family movie night, you can get Finding Forrester on Amazon for $10.00.