Word: sant
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STARRING: Sean Connery, Robert Brown DIRECTOR: Gus Van Sant OPENS: Dec. 19 in N.Y. and L.A.; wide...
...mentoring relationship develops between the cranky old writer and the very bright teenager. The film's twists and turns are as predictable as the patronizing racism at the private school that grants the boy a scholarship. Something more surprising might have been made of this odd couple, but Van Sant, emptily employing the realist manner of his early films, is goodwill hunting in all the wrong places...
...learn anything from Finding Forrester that can’t be gleaned from the broad outlines of a schmaltzy CBS movie-of-the-week. I went into the film anticipating a thematic brother to the observant Good Will Hunting, which lifted Finding Forrester’s director, Gus Van Sant, to fame. Observant, however, is a poor word to describe Finding Forrester, a film deathly afraid of being overly cerebral in word or action. Instead, the film’s creators continue Hollywood’s long trend of patronizing the general public, making unhealthy use of a popular mainstream...
...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’re not.” Van Sant follows suit, photographing a faculty-student function through a thick, sickly pale green cloud; his intent to demonize the people within it could not be made clearer if he equipped them all with red horns and pitchforks...
...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...