DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star![]()
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop![]()
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange![]()
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Finding Forrester
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Entertainment

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Mike Rich
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 20, 2000
DVD: April 24, 2001
Running Time: 135 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references
Starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Pitt, Anna Paquin, and Michael Nouri
An uplifting story about the unusual dynamic between an isolated author (Connery) and the confident teenager (Brown) who changes his life. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Drugstore Cowboy Elephant Even Cowgirls Get the Blues Gerry Good Will Hunting Last Days Milk My Own Private Idaho Paranoid Park Psycho To Die For
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
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.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Provides a platform for Sean Connery to deliver a definitive, career-summation performance.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Manages to take the cerebral act of literary creation and make it exciting, sexy even.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
One can't underestimate the appeal of any movie constructed around Sean Connery's charm.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Highly unoriginal but nevertheless stirring drama.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
Rich supplies some eloquent grace notes, and Van Sant uses them to make understated music.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Carole E. gave it a10:
I've seen a zillion movies. This is one of my all time favorites. If 2 of your biggest interests are literature and education, and you're a nice person, you should love this movie. An extremely well-done production.
Steve S. gave it a7:
Very pleseant light weight movie. Solid acting butthe plot lacked real grit.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Makes school feel exciting and interesting, which I found to be disturbing from time to time. Very analogous with Catcher in the Rye. Good analogies. Clever, if not to exciting.
Tim O gave it an8:
The anonymous who gave it a 2 didnt realize that it was based on a true story. a very shallow opinion and a very uneducated person as a whole. an excellent film on morals and understanding life as a whole.
[Anonymous] gave it a 2:
This movie was really dumb. Its directing and musical store gave the impression of a good film, but it was really garbage. It left many loose ends, was quite cliche, and was basically a waste of time. Stuuuuupid, with a capital Stu.
Danny W. gave it a 10:
Its damn good.
Taylor gave it a 10:
It is a really good movie. It may have strong language that isn't appropriate for younger kids. I have heard worse on my bus, though.
