Want to see Sean Connery spouting literature and cycling along the streets of New York? Director Gus Van Sant’s 2001 drama is the film for you!

The 70-year-old Connery brings on his prose, his pushbike and his famous twinkle as reclusive writer William Forrester, who emerges from his hermit-like existence to befriend a gifted student and basketball player (Rob Brown) –– and they both save each other.

It’s perhaps hard to believe a word of this feel-good mix of Dead Poets Society and Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting (1997), but it is still humorous, entertaining and touching.

Connery is of course now a revered national monument – and here you can see exactly why. The admirable Brown doesn’t let him have all the film to himself though.

F Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhyme...