Finding Forrester - Movie Review Essay Sample

Archetypes in movies are categorized into characters and situations. These are developed throughout the plot of the movie. Finding Forrester is a drama film which was written by Mike Rich and was directed by Guus Van Sant. Jamal Wallace, a black American is a central character in this movie. He attends a prestigious school courtesy of a special invitation. As he studies in the school he meets William Forrester, whom he befriends .As he gets to know Forrester, he finds out that he was a reclusive writer. This helps shape Jamal's talent and interest in writing and hence realizing his identity. It is worth noting that this movie is not centered on a true story. However, this movie has continued to elicit wild emotions among viewers due to the fact that most of the characters in the film portray behavior common in real life.

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Jamal Wallace, a sixteen year old boy is likes playing basketball in Newyork .William Forrester, a recluse writer, lives in a building just across the basketball court. As Jamal and his friends play basketball, they notice that William Forrester is always watching them. This forces the boys to provoke Forrester and they decide to sneak into the building and retrieve something. Jamal is pinpointed by his friends to sneak into the apartment .He is represented as a daring character with a lot of confidence. Jamal sneaks into the house as requested by the other kids and he takes away a letter opener. He is however surprised by William Forrester and as he escapes, he forgets his backpack.

The character of William Forrester is initially portrayed as one of a caring person. He takes the backpack Jamal had left at the apartment and drops it on the street. When Jamal returned home, he found that Forrester had written some notes in Jamal's Journals. This forces Jamal to return to Forrester's house and subsequently asks him to read more of what he had written. Forrester, curious of the courage of Jamal, he asks him to write a 5000 words text on why he should stay away from his apartment. Jamal, in the next day, completes the text and drops it at the doorstep of Forrester's apartment.

Jamal is not aware that William Forrester knows that he was studying at the Mailor-callow school, courtesy of a scholarship from a representative of the school. This was because he was very skillful in basketball and his academic levels were also pleasing. As Jamal continues with his studies, he comes to realize that William Forrester had authored a then famous book "Avalon Landing" .Surprisingly he had not published any other book. William Forrester accepts to help Jamal improve on his writing skills. This portrays Forrester as a kind person who is willing to offer assistance to others so that they can also advance in life. However, Forrester does not hide his character as a rather cautious person. As he helps Jamal, He had preconditions that Jamal should not inquire much about his personal life .He also discouraged Jamal from telling other people about his ways of life. This makes Jamal to wonder why Forrester didn't want much to be known about his character.

The benefits of the assistance offered by William Forrester to improve Jamal become evident when a professor at the Mailor-Callow school starts to suspect that Jamal's writing success was partly due to plagiarism. This does not go well with Jamal but he persists on his efforts to improve on writing skills. Jamal is so daring that he takes advantage of the blossoming friendship with William Forester to invite him to attend a basketball match at Madison Square. However this does not materialize due the large crowds and anxiety in the crowd. Jamal opts to take him to visit the Yankee Stadium at night when everyone has left the stadium. Surprisingly, Forrester accepts to narrate to Jamal about his details, especially on family matters and the book he had written. Jamal gets to know the basis of the book written by Forester and this raises a lot of curiosity to know more about Forrester.

Forrester has a lot of admiration towards Jamal. He gives him his private essays to rewrite them, provided that he does not go out of the apartment with any of them. At this time, there is a planned writing contest .Crawford makes Jamal stay for some time after school so that he can watch over him producing an essay. Jamal is unable to do a proper essay in these conditions and this forces him to submit one of exercises given by Forrester to the contest. This is against the conditions William Forrester had given him about not revealing any of his written works to anyone

Jamal finds himself in trouble after being accuse of plagiarism. He is called by his professor in the presence of the school board where they reveal to him that the article he had presented in the context was actually a written work of William Forrester. He is therefore forced to take plea of a charge of plagiarism or prove without reasonable doubt that he had permission form William Forrester to use his text. However, Jamal refuses both suggestions for the sake of protecting the agreement he had with Forrester. This forces Crawford to reprimand Jamal and subsequently demands the Jamal should give an apology to his classmates by writing an apology letter and reading it out in front of his classmates. However, Jamal is unwilling to do this and as a consequence, he faces the prospect of expulsion form the school. Instead, he chooses to clarify to Forrester what he had done and pleads with him to forgive him for breaking his promise. All through, Jamal is pot rayed as a stubborn character who can hardly change his opinion.

As Forrester refuses his plea to forgive him, Jamal starts to develop another view towards Forrester. He even accuses him of being selfish and scared of people knowing his whereabouts. As this debacle continues, Jamal gets some good news that the school was willing to drop the plagiarism charges against him provided his essay wins the competition. Sadly, his essay loses narrowly and this costs his team the championship. He consequently writes an essay to William Forrester, which is found out by Terrell, William's brother. At the school context, Forrester is granted permission to read an easy. This leads to a charming applause from the audience. Forrester goes on to acknowledge his friendship with Jamal. As Crawford refuses to accept the defense of Forrester on Jamal's essay, the school board overrules him and Jamal's essay is allowed into the competition.

At the close of the competition, Forester is thankful to Jamal and he reveals a desire to visit his native country, Scotland, with him. Surprisingly, this does not happen. A year later, Matt Damon, Forrester's layer breaks the sad news to Jamal that Forrester had succumbed to cancer, which he had been diagnosed with even before they had met. The attorney hands him the keys to the apartment belonging to Forrester, a thankyou note form Forrester and a package. Forrester thanks Jamal for rekindling his aspiration to live. The package given to Jamal had the manuscript Forrester was to use for his second novel. Jamal was to write the foreword. This movie is build centrally on these two characters: Jamal and Forrester.

Works cited

Finding Forrester from Box Office Mojo (2000)

Nugent, Stephanie A., and Elizabeth Shaunessy. "Using film in teacher training: Viewing the gifted through different lenses." Roeper Review 25.3 (2003): 128-134.