The Movie Finding Forrester: Summary

Finding Forrester Summary

Finding Forrester is a movie about finding yourself and finding your talents no matter what others think and or do. Jamal is a 16 year old boy going to a public high school, he gets average grades and is excellent on the court. He lives his whole life believing those things until he receives divine results to his standardized test for writing. These compelling scores cause his whole life to change. Then he meets William Forrester an adept, one-hit-wonder author who’s been hiding in his apartment since his book’s success. Forrester has been Jamal’s adjudicate and is taking on the task of teaching the young boy to write proficiently.

When Jamal receives high scores on the standardized tests private schools take notice and want him in their school. Seeing that this is free due to his scores everyone pushes him to go, thinking this is a good way to focus on writing and basketball, Jamal accepts not knowing what’s ahead of him. Thus begins a long and arduous journey for Jamal. Recently his friends talked him into breaking into the home of William Forrester to see why the old man was watching them, convinced he has a murderous scheme. Jamal is caught and accidentally leaves his precious notebooks in the apartment. Forrester reads the notebooks and critiques them. Jamal goes back hoping for more and although at first Forrester has an attitude that makes him formidable, Jamal keeps returning amazed of this stranger’s ingenious talent.

Jamal is trying hard to fit into his new school and new team, but is finding it impossible. On top of that his writing seems to keep falling short of what the stranger’s expects. Then he realizes who the stranger is and is more disconcert than ever. He has thousands of questions for the old author, but Forrester is silent and refuses to answer anything personal about himself.

At school, Jamal has one professor who will not let up. Professor Crawford has never had a student start with average writing and then suddenly have the most eloquent writing he has ever heard. This causes him to become disgruntled and he keeps an eye on Jamal.

On the basketball team, the team’s previous top player John Hartwell is giving Jamal a run for his money. The disdainful tension is high and soon erupts into a fight which the coach settles with a contest. Both players make fifty shots in a row and while everyone else is ecstatic, Hartwell is embittered and tells Jamal that no matter what the others think the two of them will never be the same, Hartwell will always be better. Things slowly start to escalate from this point.

Jamal met a beautiful girl named Claire Sprouse. She shows him around school and the two become friends quickly. It’s obvious the two have chemistry and both care a great deal about each other, but her father intervenes so that Jamal can’t be with her. Her father sees him as a poor kid with nothing to offer the school or his daughter except basketball. Jamal notices this in Claire’s father and begins to notice it all around him. This shakes his confidence.

Not only is his new life hard to fit into, but his old life is starting to dissolve right before his eyes as well. He thought before that he could interweave the two lives but his friends have made that impossible. They have started rejecting him and ignoring him when he comes around. They believe that Jamal believes he’s too good for them. This new school is making his life feel like a maelstrom, but he doesn’t know yet just how bad it will become.

Suddenly things start happening really fast for Jamal. They start winning games on the court and this makes people look at Jamal differently, now he’s accepted, but only as a basketball player. The relationship between him and Claire is still tense because of her father but feelings are beginning to grow. Forrester and Jamal have become very close friends and Jamal is beginning to really impress Forrester. Then everything changes.

Professor Crawford claims that Jamal didn’t write the last paper he turned in because of the talent. Jamal is forced to try writing his paper in the Professor’s office, but since he’s not used to that atmosphere he cannot write. He turns in one of the first papers he wrote for Forrester, not knowing that the title and first paragraph were published in a newspaper years beforehand. This misconception is discovered and Jamal gets into trouble risking expulsion. Jamal goes to Forrester and begs for him to tell them he’s friends with Jamal and that he had permission to edit the writing so the situation is rectified. Forrester refuses hoping to shun all the extra attention and a livid fight breaks out between them. The school decides Jamal will stay in school but only because he’s on the basketball team and the next year they would give him “easier classes”. Jamal feels scoffed and is furious but can’t do anything because he doesn’t have Forresters permission. He goes into the writing competition he was supposed to take part in (as part of his class) and watches from the crowd.

Suddenly in walks Forrester with the parting piece of writing that Jamal sent him. It captivates the attention of the entire audience. Professor Crawford stands up to thank Forrester and tells him what beautiful writing it was. Forrester thanks him and tells him that it’s not his writing, but it’s actually Jamal’s and that they are friends. This stuns the professor into silence and the other staff members stand up and welcome Jamal back to school in whichever classes he’d like to take ending the strife. Jamal has done what no one thought he could do, win even those who are more than surmountable in his own mind. That’s why this story is a great reminder to not let others undermine us and to do what we love without any trepidation.

Works Cited

1. IMDb. (n.d.). Finding Forrester (2000). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181536/
2. Berardinelli, J. (2000). Finding Forrester. Reelviews. Retrieved from http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/finding-forrester
3. Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Finding Forrester (2000). Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/finding_forrester
4. Ebert, R. (2000). Finding Forrester movie review & film summary (2000). Roger Ebert. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/finding-forrester-2000
5. Schafer, S. (2001). The aesthetics of care in Finding Forrester. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 59(2), 179-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6245.00015
6. Hemmeter, J. (2004). Finding Forrester: A review. Education Libraries, 27(2), 40-42. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3959652
7. Curley, D. (2003). Lessons from Finding Forrester for teaching critical literacy. English Journal, 93(4), 77-83. https://doi.org/10.2307/821656
8. Shaw, D. (2006). Caring in the classroom: Lessons from Finding Forrester. Educational Theory, 56(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2006.00001.x
9. Palmer, M. (2003). Finding Forrester: A review of a movie that touches on many themes in education. Journal of College Admission, 181, 20-24.
10. Aarts, M. P. J., & Van Leeuwen, T. M. (2018). Finding Forrester: A film for education and the importance of using films in educational settings. Journal of Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies, 17, 53-66. https://doi.org/10.7358/ecps-2018-017-aart