MovieChat Forums > Finding Forrester (2001) Discussion > Question about Forrester (spoilers)

Question about Forrester (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by macgirl66
5 replies | jump to latest

I was just wondering something after having seen this movie now for the second and third time. I really like it a lot and William spends a lot of time talking to Jamal about family, his family, the loss of his family and how devastating that was to him. We see Jamal looking through old pictures and I was trying to make out who was in the pictures. William said he travelled back and forth with his brother, and parents before the war and before their deaths. He also states that he was never married. Was he gay? Or did he just never marry?

In the photo album I didn't see any pictures of any girlfriends, but that doesn't really mean anything. I was wondering if William's sexuality is implied in the movie? I don't see any threads on it. I don't care one way or the other, I was just curious in the way that it relates to his sense of loss and isolation and his having ended up shut in with agoraphobia.

[–] LesterFester 15 years ago

Was he gay? Or did he just never marry?

In the photo album I didn't see any pictures of any girlfriends, but that doesn't really mean anything. I was wondering if William's sexuality is implied in the movie?

You are forgetting the earlier conversation between William and Jamal...

Jamal: Women will sleep with you if you write a book?
Forrester: Women will sleep with you if you write a bad book.
Jamal: Did it happen to you ?
Forrester: Sure.

and ...

Although not a direct answer to your question, Forrester offers Jamal advice on women ... "The key to a woman's heart is an unexpected gift at an unexpected time"

also...

He was Agoraphobic ... Nothing to do with his sexuality ...

Agoraphobia (, "marketplace"; and -phobia) is an anxiety disorder. Agoraphobia was traditionally thought to involve a fear of public places and open spaces. However, it is now believed that agoraphobia develops as a complication of panic attacks *Wikipedia)

" Three can keep a secret, if two are dead "

[–] macgirl66 15 years ago

Thanks! I had forgotten that part!

I do think that William suffered some type of romantic loss, as well as the loss of his family, although it may have just been a girlfriend. I just got a real sense from him that he had suffered so much loss that he did not want to suffer it again. Also, perhaps the fame thing caused him to meet some people who got in a position to hurt him and leave him.

it was just a feeling I got, could be wrong.

[–] Marcwolf-2 12 years ago

These are my thoughts and opinions.. Be kind.

I think he had a deep friendship with his brother (who he adored and admired) and maybe the parents had placed all of their hopes on the dashing adventurous son and not the bookish (William) one.

Then there was the war and Williams brother was killed. To William it would have been a great loss - possibly not only of his brother and friend, but also such a senseless waste of human life. It could have hit his parents even more and so in their grief they pushed William even father away - why was William alive and the favoured son not. Add to that William guilt that likewise he had survived would have really hit him hard.

William poured his own grief into his book "Avalon's Landing" and it became famous and won a Pulzier. This for William would have been a disaster because now everyone want him to talk about it, express it, congratulate him on it. he book was deeply personal and it may have a healing moment when originally published "This is my brother and his life and how much I loved him"
But William now has to live with that daily - it feeds him, clothes him, and is in reality the only thing he is famous for.. His Brothers Death.

Likewise before no-body was interested in the young William Forrester but now he has published EVERYONE want him. Do they want the real William or the fame that comes with knowing him. He comments re "Write a famous novel and that how you get sex" would indicate that he fund those encounters to be shallow and based solely on his fame.

So he withdrew away from the world and became a recluse. Originally his apartment was in a well to do area so by default there would be doormen who vetted visitors, delivery people who would cater to the rich and reclusive. But over time the area changed and William being unwilling to move was left there. It suited him also because the change in the area's fortunes would mean that there is less of a possibility that he's be recognised and he could get his publisher (who definitely want to keep him on their side as a low maintenance profit item) to deliver. You know "Oh - It's Thursday - you there - take the old man his groceries"

And then Jamal turned up..

Walk Quietly throughthis Earth
Leave nothing but Smiles and Pawprints

[–] noofy311 12 years ago

This was very well thought out, and my response is NOT to nit-pick but to clarify, if only to myself.

William mentioned that the night his brother died, a nurse commented on how much she loved the novel. So, the book wasn't about dealing with his brother's death, the way I understood it.

But since we never really know exactly what his story is about, it could be a deeply personal story inspired by William's love for his brother/family/whomever. If so, your analysis is still basically the same. William is sickened by fans and critics constantly telling him what his words meant to THEM, never realizing how painfully personal they were to HIM.

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oh wait... was she a great big fat person?

[–] jaystarstar 11 years ago

"Avalon Landing" was a hit before William's brother died (remember his story about the nurse going on and on about "how much it meant to her" while "my brother was getting cold in the other room.")

I think William suffering the trauma of losing his brother and both parents within a short period (a year or so) after gaining literary fame simply left a major impact on him about how meaningless that fame really was.

I believe he was straight, but due to his overall reclusiveness and reluctance to establish personal relationships, never pursued marriage. But he might also have been gay -- his sexual preference was not really relevant to the movie.

Either way, whatever his preferences, after the deaths of his family, pretty much anyone he met would have been awestruck about being with the Great Author William Forrester, and Forrester knew how superficial that stuff was.

If anything he felt a connection with Jamal because he and Jamal began relating on a one-to-one basis before Jamal found out he was a Great Author. At first Jamal simply felt Forrester was someone with a good understanding of writing.

When Jamal found out who he really was, by that time they had already established a relationship that Forrester believed was not built strictly on celebrity hero worship.

At first Forrester may have thought Jamal was not aware of the impact of "Avalon Landing," but after sending him to the library to try to get a copy, he certainly was.

So Forrester was not at all opposed to Jamal being aware that he was a Great Author, but the foundation of their relationship had been set before Jamal had more than a vague idea who he really was.

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.