Unpretentious and 'real' a very human portrait about 'lost' souls just trying to locate their authentic selves.....

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2019)

Good Will Hunting is most definitely one of the finest films of the 1990's reflecting quite an achievement in terms of feeling very 'real' and conveying a sense of genuine humanity in the complex-characterization of 'Will Hunting' who has abundant cognitive/analytical 'gifts' but due to a pronounced lack of stable/ reliable emotional-connections in his early years, has built a vast array of overt & covert 'defense-mechanisms' ensuring that no one will ever get the better of him, since he will never let anyone close enough to even begin to do so.
Usually films containing this type of subject matter (eg. struggles of a 'prodigy') could easily come-off as a combination: pretentious, overly sentimental, and basically not in any way believable or genuinely moving. Portrayals of 'geniuses' can be maddeningly hard to watch and difficult to empathize with in most films (due to the persistent danger of 'head-in-the-clouds' pretense or the general lack of commonality of experience). But miraculously, Will Hunting's characterization (as essayed by Matt Damon) is actually the polar-opposite of a stereotypical 'genius' and in fact seems to have a marked aversion to any such conventional notions!
Matt Damon perfectly captures the spirit of the intellectually gifted-rebel, with a boat-load of 'chips' on his shoulders; and Minnie Driver is fantastic as 'Skylar' the Harvard University/biology student (and no intellectual slouch herself) who takes a distinct liking to Will, and seems to possess a similarly irreverent/ non-conventional rebellious inner 'spirit' that might just be compatible? Of course, things are not so simple, and Will's old instinctive ultra-defense mechanisms (somewhat self-destructive of course), again kick into high-gear ==> acutely-activated whenever someone gets a bit too close!
Enter psychologist Dr. Sean Maguire a deeply empathic & authentic role for which Robin Williams won Best supporting Actor (a truly remarkable multi-dimensional performance indeed). Williams' movingly effective portrayal is that of a highly compassionate-intelligent psychologist who, even after much initial maddening frustration ==> slowly begins breaking-down some of Will's intricately constructed barricades and psychological mine-fields. Where Robin Williams' thespian prowess really shines is the moment we realize that Dr. Maguire might actually be as internally-broken and uncertain about his own self-identity as Will is (at least in relation to the early loss of Dr. Maguire's Wife & great-love, which left the good Doctor emotionally rudderless for a long while).
There is also a very satisfying (and again highly realistic) conclusion to this film. When I first saw this many years ago, I kept thinking this is a really great film so far, but I bet they will blow the Ending with some overly-sentimental hard-to-believe finale.
But Director Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon & Ben Affleck (who of course, wrote the brilliantly-believable Script) didn't let the audience down, and "Good Will Hunting" remains one of the finest Films of the entire 1990's!