FINDING FORRESTER
Starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown and F. Murray Abraham.
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Opens Friday, December 12
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Those readers who do not want to know whether a film is good or bad, but simply whether or not it will make them feel better about themselves, can rest easy. As well as combining the selling points of Gus Van Sant's two best-known films –Good Will Hunting (uplifting) and his Psycho remake (utterly predictable) – this second run at the underprivileged-genius-makes-good-thanks-to-mentor story also replaces Good Will Hunting’s Robin Williams with Sean Connery.
Finding Forrester raises three important questions. First, the main story concerns an academic martinet, played by F. Murray Abraham, who refuses to believe that a black teenager from the ghetto is capable of artistic excellence. Meanwhile, it is taken as natural and obvious that a black kid would need to hide his academic ability from his friends in order to be accepted by them. What's going on here?
Second, why does this film have nothing to say about the nature of genius? One of the most interesting aspects of contemporary culture is how abruptly this concept (along with that of beauty) dropped out of the critical vocabulary 10 years ago, after being central to art discourse for centuries. At the very least, one would have expected Van Sant (whose career began so well with Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho) to have something interesting to say about how misleading early success can be....
Third, how does Connery get away with it? Despite his being an outspoken advocate of Scottish independence for as long as I can remember, no one was particularly shocked when he recently accepted a knighthood. And here he is again, having his cake and eating it too, coasting through even this with dignity intact. |
