In an ordinary place, he found the one person to make his life extraordinary.

Starring: Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, April Grace, Michael Pitt, Michael Nouri, Matt Damon

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!" - Forrester

Why watch this? Talk about crossing races and generations. This does that and more.

Plot Summary: Jamal Wallace is a gifted inner-city teenager from the Bronx, whose talent for basketball secures him a scholarship to a prestigious Manhattan prep school. He develops an unlikely friendship with William Forrester, a reclusive, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who becomes his mentor and helps him refine his writing skills and navigate challenges at his new school.

Dad's Preview: This film could have been a typical white-man saves black-kid-from-the-ghetto attempt, but it is not, partly due to the unlikely pairing: an inner city young hooper and a Scottish recluse. There are significant culture clashes and mistrusts both ways, but in the end, it goes where we hope it will. Connery and Abraham give convincing performances as we'd expect, but young Rob Brown stands toe-to-toe with them. If anything, we hope Brown's performance can impress upon his audience peers that it's powerful to be academic. "You're a man now, dog!"

Columbia Pic., Laurence Mark Prod., Fountainbridge Films;
Sony Pic. Releasing