Finding Forrester (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-City Featurette-Making Of-HBO Making-Of Special Featurette-Found: Rob Brown Deleted Scenes-2 Filmographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer Trailer-All The Pretty Horses; First Knight
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	130:38
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (77:38)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gus Van Sant
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Sean Connery Rob Brown F. Murray Abraham Anna Paquin Busta Rhymes April Grace Michael Pitt Michael Nouri
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bill Frisell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish Croatian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Sean Connery plays the main supporting role in this movie, something he is quite familiar with, and very good at. He plays William Forrester, a brilliant writer who wrote one book which was published in 1953. Since then, he has withdrawn from the world, staying in his apartment in The Bronx, nearly oblivious to the changes which have taken place around him. He is the subject of urban legend, speculations about why he lives as a recluse.

    Rob Brown has never appeared in a film before, not that you'd believe that, given the quality of performance he turns in. He plays Jamal Wallace, a gifted basketball player and inspired writer who has read widely, and remembers everything he's read. Given that he is black and from The Bronx, he takes pains to hide his literary talents; he writes in his notebooks, but shows them to no one. He plays basketball with his friends, and is accepted for his skill in this area. He takes a dare to break into Forrester's apartment as part of fitting in with his friends. Surprised by Forrester, he runs, but leaves his backpack behind. A day later, he gets it back, and is astounded to find comments and criticisms written over his writing. He investigates, and so comes the shaky start to the friendship between Jamal and Forrester. At the same time, Jamal is offered a scholarship at an elite private school, ostensibly because of his outstanding test scores, but possibly because of his basketball prowess.

    F Murray Abraham plays the English teacher at the private school. He is a man with some personality problems, including a real problem with any student who challenges his authority.

    Anna Paquin is Claire Spence, the girl assigned to escort Jamal around the school, who shows a real interest in the softly spoken youth. She is the closest we get to a love interest, but that part is played extremely low-key, which is good. 

    There are some amusing sequences, such as the confrontation between Jamal and the BMW driver, and between Jamal and his English teacher. But these are the moments I refer to in describing Jamal as just a bit too remarkable. It's all a bit too pat. If we overlook that aspect, the film is really quite enjoyable. It just feels a little bit lightweight.

Video

    This movie is presented on DVD in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. This is the original theatrical ratio.

    The picture is extremely clear. It is quite sharp, but completely free from edge enhancement. There's no low level noise. The shadow detail is impressive, particularly considering that much of the story takes place in Forrester's apartment, which is very dimly lit.

    Colour is mostly quite dull, with flashes of bright colours - particularly on the basketball court. The bright colours are fully saturated, but show no trace of colour bleed. The dull colours are probably a design choice, conveying the feel of The Bronx, particularly in contrast to the private school environment.

    There are almost no visible film artefacts. There is almost no aliasing, no shimmer. This film is almost spotless, and so it ought to be, considering that it was made last year. Doesn't leave me with much to say, I guess.

    The subtitles are easy to read, in white with a black border, rendered in a simple sans-serif font. I found them quite valuable in understanding some of the language spoken in Jamal's peer group - they speak quickly, in what is almost a dialect. Even with the subtitles, I found some of the language difficult to understand. The subtitles are not always accurate, and on occasion I found them distorting the meaning in subtle ways.

    The disc is single-sided and RSDL-formatted. The layer change is at 77:38, and I did not spot it - it's nicely concealed in a scene change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only soundtrack available on this DVD is English Dolby Digital 5.1.

    The dialogue is not easy to understand at times, but I attribute most of that to the way some of the actors are speaking, and the dialect they are using, rather than to the audio transfer. There's one line that's inaudible when Sean Connery is speaking, but he is deliberately mumbling. There are no visible audio sync problems.

    The score is by Bill Frissell, but many of the songs are by others. The most interesting songs used are Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World, sung with ukulele accompaniment - quite evocative.

    The soundtrack may be encoded as 5.1, but you'd never tell from listening to it. My subwoofer switched itself off from lack of interest. I noticed nothing particular from the surrounds.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are fairly extensive.

Menu

    The menus are animated, with music over the main menu. They are attractive and functional. There's a nice ripple transition between menus.

Featurette: HBO Making Of (15:03)

    This featurette is presented in 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. It is a standard "making of", perhaps a little more interesting than most.

Featurette: Found: Rob Brown (11:59)

    This featurette is all about the discovery of Rob Brown and his selection to play the lead.

Deleted Choir Scenes

    Two deleted scenes, both choir songs:

• Lacrymosa (3:03)
• Lean on me (4:24)

Filmographies

• Gus van Sant (director)
• Sean Connery
• Anna Paquin
• F Murray Abraham

Trailers

• All the Pretty Horses (2:28)
• Finding Forrester (2:05)
• First Knight (2:16)

    This disc is available in Region 1. As far as I can discover, the features of the R1 disc are identical to ours. I can't judge which disc has the better transfer, but I'd certainly say that the R4 has an excellent transfer, and you are unlikely to regret buying it over the R1.

    Finding Forrester is a pleasant film on an excellent DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are diverse.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall