A moving and fantastic movie. I never get tired of this film!

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2000)

Good Will Hunting is the film that was unlucky to have been made in the same year as Titanic. Sadly while Titanic left with 13, it left Good Will Hunting with only 2, and unfairly so. For while no one denies that Titanic was impressive enough, Good Will Hunting should have left with the credit it deserved. This combination of Gus Van Sant's direction and the divine writing of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was one of the best films that I have ever seen. You are greeted with Will Hunting, a sadly disturbed guy who has the most amazing mind, yet can not make himself take advantage of this gift because he is afraid of the consequences. The film looks stunning, with excellent use of camera angles, while the relationships between the various characters develop with so much sincerity that you can really empathise with them. The stars of the piece are not Damon and Affleck however, but Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgard, as the shrink who is able to get into the head of brilliant young Hunting and the genius maths professor who discovers Hunting and then spends the rest of the film wishing that he hadn't. The casting of Robin Williams in the serious role of Sean Maguire is excellent; after all Williams often performs his best work when allowed to take off the comic mask that he is so well known for. There is little I can find to criticise this movie with, sometimes the music fails to live up to what it could, but that is just nit-picking! When I saw this, I had already seen Titanic and after, I went to see Titanic again. It was then that I realised that the main element of the film that was any good was the actual sinking of the ship, and that the other two and a half hours were merely there to keep you going to build you up to the ship sinking. If you are looking for a movie to show the development of a relationship between two people, watch Good Will Hunting. Good Will Hunting gives you the hope that things can work out in the end. Also if you have the option, I urge you to listen to the audio commentary that you can get on the DVD, and see how things developed during the making of this utterly superb film.