|
|
|
Good Will Hunting
****
Cinema
Releases - March 1, 1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Written by Ben Affleck, Matt
Damon. Starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams,
Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgard, John Mighton, Rachel Majowski,
Colleen McCauley, Casey Affleck, Cole Hauser.
The key moment in "Good Will Hunting"
comes when the title figure's most serious girlfriend ever forces
him to open his heart to her. He freezes, then shakes, then runs. At this,
and various other times throughout the movie, Will (Matt Damon) seems to
be forcing himself to stay where he is. However ridiculous it may sound,
he wants to be a dreamer -- dream of recognition, dream of wealth,
dream of the perfect woman -- but finds the fact that it's within his grasp
pretty scary.
Will is "wicked smart", as his friend Chuckie
(Ben Affleck) puts it. He has a photographic memory and a great sense of
humour, which means he can be wise-assed and quote literature, use his legal
knowledge to get himself of the hook for his violent behaviour, and furiously
solve maths problems which baffle students at Boston's MIT, the top technical
college in the world. This is witnessed by Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard,
from "Breaking the Waves"), a professor at the college, who spies on Will
effortlessly scribbling down the proof to a theorem he hopes his one of his
students can fathom "by the end of the semester".
Will notices him, and runs off, thinking he's
in trouble -- he was only a janitor at the college. Lambeau tracks him down,
to jail, where he's just been arrested for hitting a cop. Convinced that
Will is a genius, he makes a deal with the judge to release him, on the condition
that he practices math and sees a therapist once a week.
Will and Lambeau have fun with the math, but Will's
defensive nature keeps him from co-operating with therapists, and Will rips
through five, who come crawling away from him. Lambeau calls in his friend
Sean McGuire (Robin Williams). It's here that the film really gets going
in the four relationships which tie the story together. Sean gets Will to
trust him, and pushes him to answer the one question which has him stumped
-- "What do you want to do??". Lambeau tries to understand why Will is so
dismissive of the idea of advertising his globally unique gift, when their
math sessions deteriorate at the mere mention of college or an
intellectually-driven job. We observe the relationships between Will and
his intensely close buddies -- before and during the pressure going on him
to make something of himself. And the character of Skylar (Minnie Driver)
is brought in. It's pretty obvious to us that Will and Skylar are perfect
for each other, but Will just can't accept the fact that he's found a true
love, and we hold onto our breath wondering whether he will have the sense
to accept it himself.
The film has a lot to say about self-worth and
self-esteem, and for this reason we do not see it through Will's eyes, for
it takes the course of the movie for him to develop any. We see it through
the people around him, and it's in their eyes from which the most emotional
tears come. Sean, Chuckie, Lambeau and Skylar all know that Will is worth
more than mopping floors and laying brick. Will believes that there's nothing
wrong with being a janitor or a brickie--they're honourable professions,
he argues. Perhaps he believes that being a mathematician is not an
honourable profession, and by becoming a successful one he would betray his
roots. Maybe he's scared of heavy responsibilities. All Will's arguments
make no sense, and whenever they come out of him he turns from affable,
articulate genius to hurtful, gibbering idiot.
This performance by Matt Damon is brilliant, and
even when Will is as unlikeable as he could possibly be, we stick with him,
because we care. He and Ben Affleck both work well together, the rhythm of
their conversations feeling completely right, and they even manage to make
the thickest of Boston accents sound good. Damon and Minnie Driver also have
good chemistry, and their dating scenes were delightful enough to make me
beam. These two onscreen relationships are enriched when you know a few facts
about the players. Firstly, Damon and Affleck were best friends. They
wrote this movie five or six years ago, as students in Harvard, when Affleck
was sleeping on Damon's couch, strapped for cash. Also, Damon and Driver
fell in love while making the movie, and are currently dating.
Robin Williams gives one of his best performances,
and like Driver and Affleck, has a monologue which is crucial to how his
character feels toward Will. All three monologues are highly emotional, but
Williams's is the true tear-jerker. That's thanks to the screenplay as well
as the delivery, a screenplay in which Damon and Affleck are able to set
up characters unforgettably in maybe a page or two of writing.
The variety and scope of such an intimate story,
the different viewpoints and opinions the film takes on, and the creation
of a feel-good movie without one particular uplifting, climactic scene make
the script of "Good Will Hunting" an ambitious, admirable and masterful one.
The film works with a gradual, layered approach to its characters, and even
as the film closes, Will has not yet fully realised his potential. But we've
noticed that he's been taking notice of his friends' advice, and he's on
the right track.
A lot has been made of the fact that the film
seems a little uncertain of its message towards the end, and that it seems
to get wrapped up a little too quickly. That, I think, is not a flaw, but
the point. Will needs to sort different advice out in his own mind -- for
the film to do it would be too neat ,and wouldn't seem right. And Chuckie
made it clear that to go without goodbyes would be the coolest thing to do.
Good on Good Will.
COPYRIGHT© 1998 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
1998 Reviews
(alphabetical)
1998 Reviews (by star
rating)
Archive of all cinema reviews
(alphabetical)
Review Archive
Index
UK
Critic main page
|
|
![[Image]](http://www.ukcritic.com/posbanr2.gif)