Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Paige Turner Without exaggerating, this could quite possibly be the best movie I have ever seen. Joshua, a 16 year old boy abandoned by his mother and left homeless, must struggle to survive. His talent for art is his saving grace. Without going overboard into "wholesome" territory, The Forger tackles some heavy themes such as integrity and how to treat women. This is one of those films that can be enjoyed by adults, yet could also be shown to a youth group. It's that good. And yes, Josh Hutcherson is amazing. He shows off his acting chops in his portrayal of a confused teenage boy. Oh, and one funny thing...I watched this whole movie without realizing Lauren Bacall was in it (head smack)! I should have known by her voice. Definitely put The Forger as #1 in your Netflix queue.

RondoHatton Really well photographed, "High class" music, great scenery, but the bottom line is: It seems like an ABC After School Special!! The synopsis from the DVD kiosk sounded interesting, and I had some hope until Hayden Panetierre made the scene. She didn't damage the film, and the girl is undeniably cute, but plot and believability completely went out the door at that point, and quite frankly, with a crap script like this, not even Hayden Christensen would have done much damage. Regarding Lauren Bacall, there were glimpses of what a smoker she was when she swept Bogart off his feet, but she, Alfred Molina, and Billy Boyd must be hurting financially to have done this. After the Youth Services officer finds Joshua's mother, WTF happened, except for her to call for "a black & white". Total dreck for the junior high school crowd. Make that 13 and under.

TxMike I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. It plays much like a Lifetime made for TV movie.Josh Hutcherson is Joshua, who never knew his dad and was abandoned by his mother. He ends up in Carmel on the Pacific Ocean, and trying to survive by hustling. He also happens to be a very talented artist.One day he meets Hayden Panettiere as Amber, when he sees her being hassled by a teacher and Joshua jumps the fence to protect her. Things develop between them, after a couple of rough starts. The most sinister character is Alfred Molina as Everly, an artist who lives beyond his means, and his dark secret is art forgery. When he recognized Joshua's talent, he offers him a home, but his motive is to make $$Millions with Joshua's talent.Even the venerable Lauren Bacall, pushing 90, has a role here as Anne-Marie, local art celebrity, who also takes an interest in Joshua. We could call this "all in the family" as Clint Eastwood's wife, Dina Eastwood as the social worker Vanessa has an critical role, as well as Clint's son, Scott Eastwood as Ryan . There is even a part for Hayden's brother, Jansen Panettiere as Aram .My comments are in no way knocking the choice of actors, Ron Howard used his whole family to fine effect in many of his movies. But this is just not a very good movie. The actors do a pretty good job with the script, but the story is pretty obvious and it ends about where you would expect it to.

Tony Heck "People need to figure out how to find their success." Joshua (Hutcherson) has been abandoned by his mother in a hotel room and is on his own. After finding an open house he sneaks in for food and a bed. He stumbles on a secret room with painting supplies and his real talent is discovered by the owner (Molina) in the morning. Giving Josh a choice to stay with him in return for helping him forge paintings Josh thinks he has found his calling. Then he meets Anne-Marie (Bacall) and everything changes. This overall is not a bad movie but just a little slow. Molina and Bacall are a great choice for these roles and really helps the movie have a more legitimate feel and takes it above made for TV status. For a movie about forging paintings I do have to say that this was a really tough subject to stay interested in. For the most part I was entertained but during quite a bit of it I found myself not really caring and losing interest. Then Molina or Bacall showed up and got me back again. It seems like I'm bashing the movie, which I'm not trying to do. This movie isn't terrible just a little slow moving and hard to stay focused on. Overall, not bad but has the feel of a made for TV movie. I give it a B-.