Good Will Hunting Movie Review

Good Will Hunting

Movie Review

Close your eyes and open up your mental landscape; I want to spin a little scenario for you. You go in to buy petrol on your way home from work and notice that they sell lottery tickets. You've never bought one before, but decide that it might be fun to have a bit of a gamble with your spare change. So you shove the ticket in your pocket and promptly forget about it. Until three weeks later that is when you discover it and find out that oh, you've just won the rollover jackpot. That must have been how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck felt when Good Will Hunting came out. Their first attempt at writing a script and, besides winning an Oscar, it turns out to be one of the best and most watchable movies ever written, launching über-successful careers for both.

Luck only goes some way to accounting for the success of this movie; the talent on display here – acting, writing and directing – is what carries the boys' freshman effort far over the line. Some critics though had a hard time ascribing the necessary screenwriting chops for such a critical and box office success to two young unknowns. Rumours surfaced that Affleck and Damon hadn't written the movie themselves, and that William Goldman – Screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and Marathon Man amongst others – had helped. The degree of this help varied depending on the source consulted, with some suggesting that Goldman had ghostwritten large chunks of material. When grilled, Goldman did admit that he had been consulted, but said that he merely provided direction, nothing more.

Misdirected furore aside, what do we have here? Good Will Hunting is the story of a self-taught polymath from South Boston. Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon) works as a janitor in a local university, and in his spare time hangs around with his friends (Ben and Casey Affleck). An altercation between the group and some old enemies lands Will in court, not for the the first time. He's saved though by a professor in his university (Stellan Skarsgard), who has seen Will's proof of a particularly difficult mathematical problem which he posted for his students and wants to work with him. In return for not receiving a custodial sentence, Will must also see a psychiatrist (Robin Williams).

The cast do a phenomenal job, and its the newcomers lead the charge from the front. Matt Damon is involved and involving as Will. He changes gears between vulnerable, sarcastic, charming and intellectual without missing a beat, and occupies his screen time with the aplomb of a twenty-year acting veteran.

Godd Will Hunting showcases Ben Affleck as an audience may never see him again. The actor, in his pre-leading man, post-mallrats (where his character liked to have sex with girls in an uncomfortable place) phase is eminently humorous and vitriolic but ultimately endearing as Will's bestie Chuckie. On the strength of this performance alone I'm willing to go on record with Kevin Smith as having a man crush on the future half of two Beniffers (coincidentally, Smith gets a co-producer credit with his long time collaborator Scott Mosier for bringing the film from Castle Rock to Miramax in turnaround). The scene where he explains to Will that he'll beat the shit out of him if he's still hanging round Southie in ten years is both the peak of the flick and Affleck's performance.

The Matt Damon besotted Minnie Driver shows that although it may be hard on your off-screen life, falling in love with your co-star produces a scintillatingly genuine performance (her best to date by a rather large margin). Even Casey Affleck gives a nod to the acting potential which he is now fulfilling.

The old guard aren't to be outdone by the newbloods though. Stellan Skarsgard puts on his usual dynamic clinic as fields medalist Gerald Lambeau. If there were a stanardised movie knowledge IQ test which posed the following question: Best Robin Williams film of the eighties is to Good Morning Vietnam as best Robin Williams film of the nineties is to ____________, the answer would be Good Will Hunting. He's more World According to Garp than Patch Adams in tone (which is good – very good), but with Garp's rougher edges refined. Add to this a squirt of the world weariness of a man who's been through the same tribulations that he hears from his patients and you've got one of the most memorable psychiatrist-patient relationships in motion picture history. He's nearly as good value for his Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the boys for their Best Original Screenplay statue.

Even though its hard to miss during viewing, none of the buffalo was wasted on this film. Do you ever watch a really good movie but maybe once or twice it throws up scenes that just feel a little off? The film is still very watchable, but you can't help but notice a bit of downtime in between where the story planes off at a slight tangent and where it rejoins the meaty part of the plot. Well, that was a feeling I didn't during the watching of this film, and some credit for that must go to the director, Gus Van Sant. Recently becoming a two-time best director nominee for Milk, his first came for this piece.

Fair enough, you have to put it in perspective; with material like this you probably could have filmed the actors giving their lines against a white background and the end product would have had a modicum of success, but Van Sant adds some much needed legitimacy to the fledgling script and film makers. His direction doesn't need to perform any tricks to augment the film. What it does do though is call attention away from any of the screenplay's adolescent blemishes by providing the right visual. Its filmed in a manner which posits that all the locations and characters have been around for years, but oh, you've just happened upon them now? What good timing, well let me show you this. The film even avoids the characteristic mid-movie slump, and I can't think of many which pull that feat off. How do you like them apples indeed.

If you haven't seen this movie, see it, and if you didn't like it first time around, watch it again, and again until you realise how impossibly wonderful it is. And, while you're watching, if you still don't get it, just tell yourself that its not your fault. Its not your fault. Its not your fault.

9.5/10