ViewGuide

Created Aug 01, 2008 11:56PM PST • Edited Nov 01, 2020 09:37AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Affecting, engaging movie about the happenstance meeting of two once-in-a-lifetime talents: a legendary white novelist and a teenage black hoopster … who is also a singular literary talent. Only in Hollywood, as the saying goes. Still, with Sean Connery heading up a first-rate cast, a smart script and evocative settings, the movie finds itself very successfully.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   This movie has charisma to spare. The great Sean Connery plays a thinly disguised J.D. Salinger – legendary author. As appealing, then-newcomer Rob Brown plays a multi-talented prodigy.

   The supporting cast is also plenty strong, with F. Murry Abraham portraying yet another semi-talented egomaniac, a literary Salieri as it were. Teen dream Anna Paquin quietly charms as a soulful rich girl whose integrity is as high as her net worth.

   Distinctive turns by Michael Nouri and Busta Rhymes are also worth noting.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    This well made, intelligent film gets a bit hokey, but every generation needs at least a little Capra-corn.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    As he did with Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant delivers Hollywood polish without losing the trademark edginess of his early films.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Kudos to first time screenwriter Mike Rich for creating a terrific script on top of a clever concept. Plus, his personal story seems to parallel the young hero of his movie.

13. Music Great 4.0

    Great use of Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Park Avenue: this movie is like a tourist film of the Big Apple.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.2

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    So let’s get this straight. We’re to imagine that J.D. Salinger, who famously removed himself to rural New Hampshire after writing The Catcher in the Rye, were instead to live in a fifth floor Bronx walkup. And below his window a great basketball player hangs out, a kid who also possesses literary talent equivalent to the great Salinger himself. Then these two singular talents hook up to spur each other on to their respective destinies. Man, that would make a heck of a movie…

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0