Word: jamal
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...against the brusque and wry tendencies that Connery has honed for so long. Thus, when Forrester rails against his life’s misfortunes, his attitude seems unreal, an instrument of the plot. When he cries, he’s positively painful to watch. And when he shouts at Jamal to “Punch the keys, for God’s sake!” as he types, it’s a meaningless snatch of adrenaline meant to look snazzy in his Oscar nomination clip...
...budding relationship with Jamal shares screen time with the boy’s transition, bucked by his high test scores, from his multiethnic Bronx school to a prestigious Manhattan academy for snotty rich kids. Of course, this new school embraces the worst tendencies of the privileged class; appearance over substance is their collective lifestyle. Rich treats this view with uncomfortable unsubtlety, at one point even permitting a basketball teammate of Jamal’s to sneer at him, “You may think we’re the same, but we?...
It’s not too surprising, then, that Jamal must prove himself, on his own terms, in this hostile environment. F. Murray Abraham’s Professor Crawford provides Jamal with a suitably flat and pompous foil. Suspicious that Jamal’s talent for writing is illegitimate—“He’s a basketball player. From the Bronx”—Crawford endeavors to have him expelled. As Crawford’s role becomes prominent late in the film, Abraham dutifully slogs through a series of embarrassing scenes, trying to maintain some...
...credit, Brown remains a pleasingly assertive presence throughout, keeping Jamal’s outward development reined in with a quiet, natural skill that eludes his Oscar-winning counterparts. Van Sant shows proficiency in depicting the comfortable, expressive relationships between Jamal and his family and friends; there is not a needless look or gesture to be found in this handful of scenes...
...variety. Time after time, the filmmakers mistake blunt musings for character depth and obvious platitudes for sage utterances. Most insultingly, the film has an annoyingly high “tired scenario” quotient, squeezing in a Big Game, multiple teacher-student confrontations, and a half-serious flirtation between Jamal and a token sympathetic classmate (Anna Paquin). The filmmakers must have used these staples of the sports, school, and teen romance genres, respectively, with the hope that the studio executives would look past the devices and instead praise their film’s wealth of complex characters and timely wisdom...