Matt Damon Movie:

Editorial Review:
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

Good Will Hunting [Region 2] Reviews:
contrived, puerile, and nauseating, a cinematic fraud
2009-12-02 - "You're good, Will! You're really good!" If you want Robin Williams wheezing this mantra in your face-- if you think that's all it'll take to give you the girl, a car, and a road out west, this is your film! This film has been used in courses on the Holocaust to show how propaganda works: by inducing a state of conformity in the target audience. I don't think I've ever seen a more dishonest film, or an uglier one.

Of course people who judge films by the effect they have on their moods will disagree. They don't see the similarity between this effect and say, the effect of...heroin. If they should happen upon actual art-- which is supposed to help human beings understand the world and how to live in it-- these people would of course reject it as "weird."

This is industrial propaganda masquerading as "honesty." Pure evil.

Having said that, in the years since this film was released, Matt Damon has come a long way towards becoming a real artist. Perhaps this horror was a compromise he made to the gods of commerce (it is said the once great screenwriter William Goldman-- now a hack-- actually contributed a great deal to this script).

Ordered a dvd
2009-10-14 - I got the dvd really fast and it was in perfect condition. I would definitely order from them again!

An Engaging Movie Set in Boston
2009-09-20 - Good Will Hunting looks as fresh today as when it was released. The entire cast does an excellent job, but Robbins Williams is exceptional. I'm probably biased because I've lived and worked in Boston and thought this film did an excellent job of portraying the city. It shows the gritty side and the city's off-putting pretentiousness, but it also reveals a town with abundant energy and heart.

The movie is famous for projecting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck into the limelight. The two wrote the screenplay so they could star in a movie, much like Sylvester Stallone did in the first Rocky.



Emotionally, Captivating, Modern Day Drama
2009-07-26 - Good Will Hunting is an emotionally powerful drama about an extremely intelligent young man and his inner struggle to reach his potential. Unlike many similar films that build their screenplays out of cliched themes, and redundant character arcs, Good Will Hunting is such an effective film because it builds it's characters so incredibly well. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote one of the most intelligent screenplays of 1997, which subsequently happened to earn them the Oscar for best screenplay. It is one of the more successful films that reveals with incredible insight into the male psyche. Elliott Smith's music adds a tortured introspection to the film, and elevates it to another level. Dealing with emotional powerful themes, GWH confronts the viewer head on. Will Hunting is a bright young man, but he needs help channeling his anger and learning to apply his talents. He possibly knows this, but doesn't want or know how to ask for it. He has built an emotional defense around himself to protect him. GWH is about his struggle and eventual success over his emotional wounds. GWH is a feel good drama, and that doesn't necessarily make it a bad film. It's success relies on it's emotional intensity. Add to the fact that he is incredibly smart, and you have the makings of a great drama. Thus the conflict, is between himself, although it appears to be between the people that are trying to help him.

The protagonist, Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a self-taught genius who works as a janitor at M.I.T.. He is also an undiscovered math prodigy who is leading a self destructive life. Unwilling and/or unable to accept the talent that he has, Will spends his time fighting and rebelling with his friends. Will has an intense disregard for authority and the status quo that attempt to enforce it on him. We learn this in several key scenes early on in the film. Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) plays a Fields Medal winning calculus professor who puts an impossible equation on the blackboard in an attempt to find an answer. Will solves it anonymously. Will reveals how incredibly well read he is in a poignant scene with his friends while they are visiting a bar. He also makes friends with a young woman named Skylar (Minnie Driver). The next day at work, he is caught by Dr. Lambeau solving another problem. Will and his friends engage in a brawl the next day, and Will is taken into police custody for assaulting a police officer, and we learn in court that Will has been through several foster homes and that he was physically abused in several of these. Will is articulate, intelligent, good-looking, and well read. Immediately, there is an inner conflict that begins to reveal itself which creates a dynamic tension throughout the rest of the film. Professor Lambeau helps Will get out of jail with the requirements that he see a psychologist. Will proceeds to humiliate and mock his would be mentors in a series of humorous and dynamic scenes. Professor Lambeau convinces his old college roomate Sean MacGuire(Robin Williams) to see Will. In their first meeting, Will continues to demonstrate his cruel ability to emotionally attack and penetrate these psychologists. Will criticizes Sean's painting, and then arrogantly makes judgments about Sean's personal life. We are able to see Will's personal life in relation to his mandatory visits every week. Will begins a relationship with Skylar, but is unable to maintain the emotional trust and honesty that personal relationships demand. He uses lying as a way to protect his privacy, and cover his emotional wounds, and is unwilling to let anyone in. There are several different story arc's that are taking place simultaneously that represent the different paths that Will can take. What makes it so powerful, is that the viewer sees this before Will does. Van Sant builds drama through his careful construction of the screenplay. In a powerful scene, Skylar's attempt to break through Will's defenses end in a heartbreaking display of Will's emotional numbness and selfishness. Will's friends represent the life that he has been leading, and Skylar represents the life that he could be leading. Will's friends don't challenge him and question the decisions that he is making. Will's friends are not as smart as he is, but accepting of his intelligence and provide friendship without asking questions. Skylar and Sean begin to dig away at the wall Will has built around him. On the surface everything appears okay, but it his emotional wounds from his past that plague him. Will is genuinely a good kid who blames himself for his abuse. He has emotionally separated himself from people and won't let people through. In a climatic scene of incredible emotional intensity, Sean breaks through the protective barriers that Will has built around him. Will slowly learns to confront his past and begins the healing process. He eventually realizes that what happened to him wasn't his fault. Good Will Hunting's moments of realization reverberate powerfully through the viewer because of how well they have been placed. Chuckie comes to the realization that Will does indeed have a gift, and that it would be foolish of him not to take advantage of it. Although, this is an incredible amount of depth that Chuckie takes on for his emotionally shallow character, but nevertheless it works powerfully. The resolution of the film is somewhat ambiguous, but it is completely satisfying. GWH is a truly dynamic, moving, and bold film that explores the complex psychological and social constructs of the human condition.

USA, Good Will Hunting, 1997, 126 minutes

Plausible premise with gritty believable characters
2009-06-13 - As a professional mathematician, I can appreciate the appearance of the mathematical prodigy Will Hunting in the most unusual of places. Mathematics is one area where prodigies appear so that aspect of the story is plausible. Hunting is working as a janitor at MIT when he rather casually solves a difficult math problem that Professor Gerald Lambeau has posed to his students. Will's past has been a difficult one, as a youth he bounced from foster home to foster home and was abused. He has had several run-ins with the law and so it appears that his mathematical talent will remain untapped.
Robin Williams plays a rather unusual psychology professor named Sean Maguire and turned in the best performance in the movie. Despite early setbacks in the counseling relationship between Will and Maguire, Will is able to come to grips with his prodigious talents and troubled past and embarks on what is hopefully a brilliant career. The movie is also about the role of friendship, Ben Affleck plays Will Hunting's boyhood friend that still plays a major role in his life yet understands that the best thing for Will would be for them to part. This realism on the part of the Affleck character and Sean Maguire helps Will to reach an understanding with himself and embark on what should be his true path.
Written by the stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, that itself is one of the wonderful true stories of life. Two young actors collaborating on a script that wins an Oscar is as improbable as the story of their script. This movie deserved all of the accolades it received.