Good Will Hunting (1997)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Good Will Hunting (1997) – G. Van Sant

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won the Oscar for best original screenplay and effectively launched their careers as stars with this film, directed by Gus Van Sant (best known then for Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and To Die For).  When Van Sant came on board, Robin Williams (already a superstar) signed up.  I skipped this in the 1990s but I thought I would fill in this gap now.  Damon plays a kid from Boston who has genius-level math ability but is self-taught and full of anger and defensiveness.  When he is discovered/rescued by a math professor (Stellan Skarsgård), the deal is that he can stay out of jail only if he attends both math workshops and therapy.  No therapist can handle his challenges until Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), also from working class South Boston and the professor’s former college roommate, is brought in.  At the same time, Will Hunting (Damon) continues to hang out with his school mates, the two Afflecks included, and while at a bar, he meets Skylar (Minnie Driver, in a charismatic performance) and they start a romance.  Will’s avoidant attachment style (developed through harsh treatment at the orphanage where he grew up) nearly causes him to throw away his career in maths and his new romance with Skylar.  Of course, with the loving mentoring of Williams (underplaying dramatically), he breaks through the wall. In a movie like this, it isn’t a spoiler, is it?  This is all about the final “feel good” moment – which also reduces the film’s artistic merits (i.e., its been given the Hollywood treatment which you can see coming from a mile away).  The psychologizing is probably a bit too pat as well. That said, there are many finely observed moments in the film and the actors work hard to give their characters some depth (even if not everyone can pull off the Boston accent). At the end of the day, it is probably a testament to Van Sant’s skill that this came off as well as it did; in the hands of a lesser director it could have been much soppier stuff.