Saturday, June 23, 2001
Watching Finding Forrester
Rented and saw this movie tonight with Erika. This was another Gus van Sant film that Erika had worked on (the previous being Good Will Hunting), and in many ways it was very similar to it. Hell, it's Goodwill Hunting Redux. While I didn't get to meet the actors this time around, I did visit for this film once, as all of the interior scenes shot in "Forrester's apartment" were done in Toronto. I remember walking onto the set during a break, and suddenly I was in an apartment in the Bronx, run-down, carefully painted cracks lining the plaster walls, but filled to the rafters with books. I remember marvelling at the pile of old books on one desk, and asking Erika what happens to them after the film finished shooting. ("Rentals," I believe she said). They looked good in that they were old, though there contents were as likely to be some forgotten book on agriculture from the turn of the previous century, or equally old pulp fiction, though a few odd-looking gems sparkled here and there amongst the pile (hence my question). I think I would have noticed the bookshelf depicted in the film brimming with works by Mishima, Hemingway and T.S. Eliot.
My main problem with the movie is that I never felt like I ever got into the head of the protagonist, and hence I could never willingly suspend my belief that this kid (who looked significantly older than the 16 he was supposed to be) was actually an up-and-coming-writer of the magnitude depicted in the film. The actor, Rob Brown, is obviously smart, and managed to convey that in his character in the movie, but somehow the performance was wooden and unconvincing (or maybe it was the script -- portraying excellence in writing and basketball is just a bit much for a single movie). Connery was convincing as the reclusive J.D. Salinger-esque Forrester, who finds himself. Essentially, this is the case of a movie that could have been great, but misses the mark by overreaching -- something which can't be said of too many films these days.
Much of the "Making Of" documentary contained on the DVD shows the actors in various locations in New York City, but there are a few frames where Erika and her boom pole appear while on set (during the scene where Connery is overwhelmed by a crowd, which was apparently shot inside Maple Leaf Gardens).
A good, though not a great, movie. A good rental though.
Rented and saw this movie tonight with Erika. This was another Gus van Sant film that Erika had worked on (the previous being Good Will Hunting), and in many ways it was very similar to it. Hell, it's Goodwill Hunting Redux. While I didn't get to meet the actors this time around, I did visit for this film once, as all of the interior scenes shot in "Forrester's apartment" were done in Toronto. I remember walking onto the set during a break, and suddenly I was in an apartment in the Bronx, run-down, carefully painted cracks lining the plaster walls, but filled to the rafters with books. I remember marvelling at the pile of old books on one desk, and asking Erika what happens to them after the film finished shooting. ("Rentals," I believe she said). They looked good in that they were old, though there contents were as likely to be some forgotten book on agriculture from the turn of the previous century, or equally old pulp fiction, though a few odd-looking gems sparkled here and there amongst the pile (hence my question). I think I would have noticed the bookshelf depicted in the film brimming with works by Mishima, Hemingway and T.S. Eliot.
My main problem with the movie is that I never felt like I ever got into the head of the protagonist, and hence I could never willingly suspend my belief that this kid (who looked significantly older than the 16 he was supposed to be) was actually an up-and-coming-writer of the magnitude depicted in the film. The actor, Rob Brown, is obviously smart, and managed to convey that in his character in the movie, but somehow the performance was wooden and unconvincing (or maybe it was the script -- portraying excellence in writing and basketball is just a bit much for a single movie). Connery was convincing as the reclusive J.D. Salinger-esque Forrester, who finds himself. Essentially, this is the case of a movie that could have been great, but misses the mark by overreaching -- something which can't be said of too many films these days.
Much of the "Making Of" documentary contained on the DVD shows the actors in various locations in New York City, but there are a few frames where Erika and her boom pole appear while on set (during the scene where Connery is overwhelmed by a crowd, which was apparently shot inside Maple Leaf Gardens).
A good, though not a great, movie. A good rental though.
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