Finding Forrester

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Finding Forrester achieves a distinct success few Hollywood movies can even dream of: It overwhelms and inspires with understatement.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

The execution is crisp and the fundamentals are solid. Like its protagonist, Finding Forrester got game.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Written, acted and directed so intelligently that it stands out from the pack, and is guaranteed to give you the warm glow of holiday movies past -- the kind that celebrated faith in human potential and the value of hard work.

Variety Emanuel Levy

Provides a platform for Sean Connery to deliver a definitive, career-summation performance.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Manages to take the cerebral act of literary creation and make it exciting, sexy even.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The ending leans to soap opera, but Van Sant, revisiting the closet-genius theme of "Good Will Hunting" is too keen an observer of character to let this funny and touching film go soft.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The scenes between the old man and the teenager are at the heart of the movie, and it's a pleasure to watch the rapport between Connery, in his 50th year of acting, and Brown, in his first role.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

It's rare to see a movie that takes such joy in the power of words, not to create lofty works of art but to effect the simple, necessary translation of what's in one's heart and mind.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A juicy and gratifying teacher movie (a genre to which I'm partial). The joy in performance shared by Connery and Brown is the big reason.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie is not without its pleasures. Chief among them is Sean Connery's robust performance.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If it were 10 minutes shorter, it would've been just the right length and almost wholly honest.

USA Today Mike Clark

One can't underestimate the appeal of any movie constructed around Sean Connery's charm.

Baltimore Sun Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Connery and Brown absolutely shine in their roles.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

A rewarding exploration of the knotty and often contentious relationship between teacher and protege.

Film.com Robert Horton

One of those hybrid projects: a major studio film, big star, homely storyline, but tempered by an indie director working in his own idiosyncratic style.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A nice-looking, nice-feeling exercise in conventionalism that sure could use a couple of transvestites and maybe a house falling from the sky.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Highly unoriginal but nevertheless stirring drama.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It feels less predictable and derivative than it is, thanks to Gus Van Sant's deft direction and two fine central performances.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Even fairy tales could use a bit more substance than this.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

At times you can feel Van Sant trying to loosen the movie's windpipe-folding collar, but he doesn't get far, except with Busta Rhymes, as Jamal's gone-nowhere big brother.

Salon.com Laura Miller

A farrago, with a few morsels of deft social observation and likable performances floating around in a conventional stew of overblown, bogus emotion and rigged catharsis.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Well acted (notably by newcomer Brown), warm hearted and utterly predictable, this film is aimed squarely at everyone who loved "Good Will Hunting."

Time Richard Schickel

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The screenplay by Mike Rich is so far-fetched and riddled with holes that Mr. Van Sant's urban realist touches only underscore the falseness of what's on the screen.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Rich supplies some eloquent grace notes, and Van Sant uses them to make understated music.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The premise is more interesting than the movie, which takes several wrong turns on its way to an unconvincing conclusion.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Not even D.W. Griffith, Steven Spielberg, and Stanley Kubrick working together could succeed in making this pandering piece of nonsense work dramatically on any level except the most egregiously phony.