It must be heartbreaking to be able to accept an intelligent person and still feel like you’re selling yourself short. A man can spend his whole life studying to be a mathematician – and yet watch helplessly while a high school dropout, a janitor, writes down the answers to questions the professor is surprised at.
It’s also heartbreaking with the intelligent person won’t recognize themselves, and that’s the most surprising problem of all in “Good Will Hunting,” the smart, moving film of a working-class kid from Boston.
The film stars Matt Damon as a janitor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who likes to party and roam the old neighborhood and likes to download entire libraries worth of material into his photographic memory. Stellan Skarsgard plays Lambeau, the professor, who gives a reward to any student who can solve a difficult problem. The next morning, the answer is written on a blackboard that is in the hall.
None of the students take credit for answering the question. Roger Ebert said in his review, “A few days later, Lambeau catches Will Hunting (Damon) at the board and realizes he's the author--a natural mathematical genius who can intuitively see through the thorniest problems.” Lambeau wants to help Will, enroll him in school, or maybe work together with him. However, before that can happen, Will and his friends are joyriding the neighborhood and beat up a man. Will also insults the cops a little and is arrested.
He’s a real tough guy. He sees nothing wrong with wasting his entire life being with his friends, drinking a few bears, holding down a blue-collar job. Ebert says, “He sees romance in being an honest bricklayer, but none in being a professor of mathematics--maybe because bricklaying is work, and, for him, math isn't.”
Ebert described, ““Good Will Hunting” is the story of how this kid's life edges toward self-destruction and how four people try to haul him back.” One is Lambeau, who gets probation for Will with a promise that he’ll find him help and counseling.
One is Sean McGuire, played by the late Robin Williams, Lambeau’s college roommate, now a community college professor who made a lot of mistakes in his own life, but is a true counselor. One is Skylar, played by Minnie Driver, a British student at Harvard, who falls in love with Will and tries to help him. Finally, there is Chuckie, played by Ben Affleck, Will’s friend since childhood, who tells him: “You’re sitting on a winning lottery ticket. It would be an insult to us if you’re still around here in 20 years.” Even though Chuckie has a point, Will doesn’t see it that way. Ebert said, “His reluctance to embrace the opportunity at MIT is based partly on class pride (it would be betraying his buddies and the old neighborhood) and partly on old psychic wounds. And it is only through breaking through to those scars and sharing some of his own that McGuire, the counselor, is able to help him.” Robin Williams gave one of his best performances as McGuire, especially near the end when he finally goes to Will repeating, “It’s not your fault.” “Good Will Hunting” may have found some of its inspiration in the life of Damon and Affleck. Both co-wrote the movie, both grew up in Boston, both are childhood friends, and both took youthful natural talents and used them to find success as actors. Ebert said, “It's tempting to find parallels between their lives and the characters--and tempting, too, to watch the scenes between Damon and Driver with the knowledge that they fell in love while making the movie.”
Ebert continued, “The Will Hunting character is so much in the foreground that it's easy to miss a parallel relationship: Lambeau and McGuire also are old friends who have fought because of old angers and insecurities. In a sense, by bringing the troubled counselor and the troublesome janitor together, the professor helps to heal both of them.”
The film has an ability to show the way these characters might really talk.
It was directed by Gus Van Sant, who sometimes seems to have it down pat when it comes to dialogue. Look at when Will and Skylar break up and say painful things and see how clear he makes it that Will is pushing her away because he doesn’t think he deserves her.
The resolution of the movie is very predictable. Really, the whole story is too. Ebert said, “It's the individual moments, not the payoff, that make it so effective.”
“Good Will Hunting” has been in fact strangely compared to “Rain Man,” despite “Rain Man” was about an autistic character who cannot and does not change, and “Good Will Hunting” is about a genius who can change, and grow, if he chooses to.
True, they can both do quick math in their heads. Ebert said, “But Will Hunting is not an idiot savant or some kind of lovable curiosity; he's a smart man who knows he's smart but pulls back from challenges because he was beaten down once too often as a child.”
Here is a character who has four friends who love and want to help him, and he’s threatened by their help because it means changing every one of his old, sick, dysfunctional defense devices.
Ebert noted, “As Louis Armstrong once said, “There's some folks, that, if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.”” This movie is about whether Will is one of those people.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote this movie when they were both in college and they had pitched this to the film industry. As college dropouts who went through a lot in order to get this film made, especially using “Rocky Balboa” as their answer, this is a powerful movie. Especially getting Robin Williams in here, that really helped a lot. If you haven’t seen this, you should. There are so many great moments in this film that I can’t tell them all. A word of warning: the F word is used 154 times. Still, this is an inspirational movie about how you should never sell yourself short and always strive to be the best person ever.
Look out next week to see what I will review next in “Matt Damon Month.”
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