Amazon.com Essentials:
Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and
actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original
Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs
because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. The unconventional
director (My Own
Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy)
saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by
yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast
(amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Van
Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for
women's melodrama in the '30s and '40s: He's crafted an intelligent,
unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find
inner-wisdom.
Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet math genius who ignores his
gift in favor of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston
buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). While working as a
university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled
on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an
arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). Damon only avoids
prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or
psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's
former childhood friend, played by Williams. Both doctor and patient
are haunted by the past, and as mutual respect develops, the healing
process begins. The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but
with small, quiet moments. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to
Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy
session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward
ways men show affection and feeling for one another. --Dave
McCoy
Amazon.com Essentials:
One of the best films of the 1990s, this is one of those rare
box office mega-hits that deserved all the adulation and awards it
earned. Youthful stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck earned an Academy
Award for their incisive, witty script. Damon plays a janitor at MIT
who is an enormously gifted mathematician. Salivating professors bring
the angry and troubled young man to psychiatrist Robin Williams,
hoping Damon will conform enough to further his education. (Williams
garnered an Academy Award for his heartfelt performance.) Director Gus
Van Sant put away his more invasive camera tricks and let the story
tell itself. Good thing, because this is one involving and well-acted
tale. Several plot tangents, including a sweet little romance between
Damon and Minnie Driver, are carefully woven into the fabric of this
multilayered drama. Friendship, societal expectations, and the long
reach of a damaged childhood are all portrayed with such finesse that
the story never feels heavy-handed. Extraordinarily optimistic,
Good Will Hunting is exceptional because it causes elation
and forces you to think. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Amazon.com Essentials:
Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and
actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original
Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs
because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. The unconventional
director (My Own
Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy)
saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by
yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast
(amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Van
Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for
women's melodrama in the '30s and '40s: He's crafted an intelligent,
unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find
inner-wisdom.
Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet math genius who ignores his
gift in favor of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston
buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). While working as a
university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled
on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an
arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). Damon only avoids
prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or
psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's
former childhood friend, played by Williams. Both doctor and patient
are haunted by the past, and as mutual respect develops, the healing
process begins. The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but
with small, quiet moments. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to
Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy
session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward
ways men show affection and feeling for one another. --Dave
McCoy
