Good Will Hunting: A Review

The movie that launched the careers of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the 1997 film Good Will Hunting is the story of a troubled young man, Will Hunting (Matt Damon), whose polymathic abilities are discovered by a distinguished mathematics professor at MIT. However the professor soon discovers that Will's self-destructive streak is preventing him from unlocking his full potential, and so appeals to his old college roommate, a psychology professor, to counsel Will.

The cinematography is sharp-there are some truly elegant shots of Boston-and the soundtrack is aptly understated yet resonant. But while technically superb, this is less a filmmaker's film: Good Will Hunting is all about the script and the performances. The film won two Academy Awards, one for best original screenplay, and one for Best Supporting Actor (Robin Williams).

As the film opens, we follow young Will Hunting as he hangs out and gets into trouble with his Irish buddies in an impoverished section of South Boston. We quickly learn however that Will is a genius who has mastered several academic fields through self-instruction, principally mathematics. Over the course of a semester, Professor Gerald Lambeau (the underrated Stellan Skarsgard), a distinguished mathematics professor and Fields Medal (an award akin to the Nobel Prize for mathematicians) winner places a complicated mathematics problem on a chalkboard outside his classroom, daring intrepid students to solve it. Will, working as a janitor, does so anonymously. Lambeau counters with a second problem and catches Will solving it, but Will runs off. Lambeau tracks him down, only to find Will in criminal court defending himself against assault charges obtained when he, earlier in the film, initiated a public brawl. Lambeau makes an arrangement with the judge to have the charges dropped if Will works to refine his academic talents under the mathematician's tutelage.

However, Will is flippant, hostile, and disruptive, not to mention hilarious; his sarcastic diatribes steal more than a fair share of the film's scenes. Those erudite broadsides, skewering everyone and everything from the legal system to the professors to potential employers, are one of the true high points of the film. The dialogue is crisp and razor sharp; never has the arcane sounded so appealing.

Fed up, Lambeau asks his old, estranged friend Sean Maguire to counsel Will. Will is equally unruly with Maguire, a psychology professor (played by an uncharacteristically reserved Robin Williams) who just might be wrestling with a few demons of his own. As the film progresses, Will continues to alienate Maguire, Lambeau, and new girlfriend Skyler (an effervescent, if nothing else, Minnie Driver), while Maguire and Lambeau resolve their own old hostilities.

The film's climax, which reveals that Will's issues stem from being a survivor of child abuse, is disturbing and moving, with both Matt Damon and Robin Williams sharing a particularly gripping and memorable scene. And while this is largely Matt Damon's vehicle, Ben Affleck steals a scene of his own towards the end of the film when he weighs in on Will's choices.

Good Will Hunting ends on an upbeat note: the message here is to not let your past demons drive your future opportunities. It is both inspired (without being overly sentimental) and compelling. If you are one of the few who have not yet seen the movie, rent or buy it today.

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