97's Best

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 1998)

Good Will Hunting isn't a formula movie. It's plot has been used before, but it's wholly original. It's a wonderful character study about friendship, potential, love, and most importantly, low self-esteem. Most don't think about the low self esteem part, because Will was a cocky kid. But low self esteem was the whole reason he wouldn't capitalize on his gift.
Will is a high school dropout who works as a janitor at MIT. Gerald Lambeau put a problem on the board in the hall, and Will solved it. Before the Lambeau can talk to Will, he gets arrested for punching a cop. Will gets released into Lambeau's custody under the condition that he sees a therapist. He scares off a few (in some very funny scenes), and finally sees one who is much the same as Will. Through each other, they both learn to get on with their life, and put the past behind them.
The performances are some of the best of the year and even of the decade. Robin Williams does his career thus-best in this movie. He plays a father figure to Will, even though the script only once hints to this. He had some of the same past as Will, and he is not only a father-figure to Will, but a best friend, and even a brother. He had grown up in the same neighborhood as Will. He had been abused like Will. So, they related to each other on a different level than Will could with anyone else, and on a higher level than Will wanted to relate to anyone else. He spoke the same language as Will did, that was the reason Will would listen.
Minnie Driver received an Oscar nomination for her work in this movie. I thought she did career-topping work too. She had a very sketchy role, but did sorcery with it. She was excellent. She had opened her heart to Will, only to have it crushed. And then, after that, she still loved him. She didn't have the biggest role by any means, but she had an extremely important role.
Matt Damon through the movie. He gives the best performance in the movie, hands down. His character is desperate, yet afraid of answers to questions that he can't find in books. The role is so complex, that you forget that he had to act in this part. He had to play a dashing lover to Skylar, a genius, a good friend, and a scared kid, and put these together and come up with a convincing character. And Damon does that without trouble. He had us all crying like babies in a certain particular scene. You here people say, "Oh but Leonardo DiCaprio deserved to win the Oscar or at least get nominated." To me there was no comparison at all. Matt Damon was clearly better than Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought that Matt Damon was even superior to Al Pacino who deserved a nomination for Donnie Brasco, and everyone knows I love Al Pacino.
Ben Affleck has a small but important part in the movie. I personally think that he deserved an Oscar nomination for this too. He gave a great, near perfect performance. You don't have to have someone acting like they don't have enough since to come in out of the rain to give a good performance, and the whole cast shows it here.
Stellan Skarsgard has an important role as the mathematician who "discovers" Will. It must have been heartbreaking for his character, Lambeau to know what true genius is, and appreciate true genius, but fall short of it himself. It must have been heartbreaking to watch an abused, high school dropout, cocky, 20 year old kid do math in a second that he was completely in the dark about. And it must have been most heartbreaking to watch Will almost throw it all away.
The script of this movie was such a surprise. It was written by two actors, not screenwriters, who wanted to find their big break. Instead of waiting until the perfect part came, they wrote themselves the perfect part. The result was the best screenplay of the year. I wouldn't hesitate to put it within the 5 best of the decade.
Jean Yves-Escoffier does a great job as the Director of Photography. He shoots it in a low key, dark, close-up style that works effectively. It captures the dark, moodiness of Boston.
Danny Elfman does great work on the score. He got nominated for an Oscar, but this being his first "normal" movie, and plus being against Titanic, didn't help. It's a shame, I wouldn't hesitate to say that no movie was more enhanced by a score last year than Good Will Hunting.
Gus Van Sant deserves credit for directing it. I've heard it compared to Dead Poets Society by saying, "I didn't even shed a tear at Good Will Hunting, but there wasn't a dry eye in the theater when I saw Dead Poets Society." Now that's a silly statement. That doesn't say anything about the quality of the movie. The difference is the directors. Peter Wier, who directed Dead Poets Society, is a sentimentalist, and Van Sant isn't. As one very good reviewer put it, "Gus Van Sant refrains from beating the audience over the head during the emotional scenes." That's exactly right. Peter Wier doesn't.
In my book, Good Will Hunting is one of the 10 best movies of all time. It's one of the modern classics in my book. And if there's any justice, it will be in everyone else's book too.
9 Oscar Nominations: (Picture, Director, Actor (Damon), Supporting Actor (Williams), Supporting Actress (Driver), Screenplay, Editing, Song, Score )
GRADE: A+ ****
The best movie of the year.
(NOTE: I would highly recommend this film to everyone, but beware - this film is quite liberal in its use of the most notorious four-letter word known to Hollywood. If you still don't know what I mean, think of Joe Pesci. If you *still* don't know what I mean, you're innocence is amazing, and this film would probably knock you for a loop. )