An appreciation...finally ... (Finding Forrester (DVD))

Name: Aerith

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Product:	Finding Forrester (DVD)
Date:	25/10/01 (475 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good film, has a message, easy to watch

Disadvantages: Sean's accent Mish Monneypenny...

Doing english is probably one of the hardest subjects there can be to do. Okay, so I know many people will turn about and bitch about it and say "well, you try doing physics or maths or blah blah blah..." but they'd be wrong. English students have a damn high rate of alcoholic/suicides when compared to other courses. Some wierd fact I found a few years ago on the internet. Quite a sobering thought, isnt it? But still, looking at the odds of me coming out t-total and alive... I still decided to have a crack at one of the most competetive, bitchiest and hardest degrees... English.

That's why I found this film. William Forrester... a tale of a man who once wrote, but gave his talent up to hide away and live off the proceeds of the only book he ever wrote, a book that became a landmark in history of the written word. On the other side of the coin was a young black male, who had talent, sheer talent in bucketloads but was swamped under by peer pressure and the fact that people about him, whilst encouraging him, others would try to bring him down, Heartfelt and touching, it's a story which I related to, especially as Im doing an english degree, as I know what it's like and how damn hard it is, to have talent, and not be able to share it, to not make people weep with how you want the language to wind it's way about your soul, how the fluidity of your prose doesn't touch others but to you it's magnificent. Lets face it, without english we'd all be speaking german/latin and where we would be?

The film, is based about this young male who works hard at basketball, and not so hard at school, but still manages an AMAZING grade in his tests. We're talking so amazing he is offered a scholarship to one of THE finest english schools there are in NY. If it were me I would throw away the basketball and BEG to go... but he is asked to go for his sporting skills as well as his obvious talent
for the written word. Packing up, he leaves his old school and sets into his new one, where rivalries between pupils are obvious. This is where the story happens.
One his way home one night he takes up a dare form his friends, to climb into this "spooky" mans window, and take something out to prove he has been in. Naturally he does take the challenge and climbs up the ladders and into the apartment which belongs to this mystery man and starts looking for something to take back from amongst the bric-a-brac and books piled everywhere. As he reaches for a knife the old man, who had lain sleeping in his chair, wakes and scares Jamal, who runs out, forgetting his bag. Day or so later, jamal comes for his bag back only to find that when he reads his diary the man has annotated his texts and musings... this eventually leads him to finding Forrester, as the title of the film implies... however, what happens from there is a secret, as Jamal clashes with his oppressive, bigoted Tutor...

I like it, it's right from the heart, after all, eveyrone gets a hard assed tutor now and then who reckons the sun revolves about them when all you wanna do is strangle them to death. I've had a few, some I won't name, one especially at uni, and oddly enough... it's always the english tutors.

The film is good, well acted and thoughtful. Watch it if you like english, and if ya dont like english, just watch it for the superb performances that are turned in.

'Rith xx

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