Finding Forrester (2000)

Jamal Wallace is a sixteen-year-old basketball player in the Bronx who secretly fills notebooks with stories. On a dare he sneaks into the apartment of a reclusive man everyone watches through binoculars, and leaves his backpack behind. The man turns out to be William Forrester, author of one celebrated novel who vanished from public life, and he begins to correct Jamal's writing. As Jamal wins a scholarship to an elite Manhattan school and clashes with a suspicious teacher, the two outsiders slowly build a friendship. Sean Connery, who also produced, gives one of his warmest late performances, and Rob Brown, a newcomer with no acting experience, was cast after an open audition. The script was by Mike Rich, later writer of The Rookie.