James Dean buys a pocket calculator.

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2003)

A rebellious young college janitor (Matt Damon) is secretly a maths genius, but even when it is uncovered, he seems reluctant to use it to better his life.
A film that is billed as "highly original" is nothing of the kind. It merely lifts from a wide variety of diverse movies from Saturday Night Fever through Rocky to Love Story. However it owes more to Ordinary People (the film best remembered - or is it forgotten!? - for robbing Raging Bull of the Best Picture Oscar!) than any other.
Hard to really believe the central character who seems to have read lots of books and done a lot of studying off-screen (how, why and when are not fully explained). On-screen he seems much more interested in fighting on street corners, shouting at his working class friends (even when they are sat next to him), and getting clever-clever with authority.
Good performance from Matt Damon in the central role, but Robin Williams as the psychiatrist who helps him (and who himself ends up helped), is the standout. Here is guy who can say more with a look than most actors can do with a hundreds lines of dialogue. Shame that even the academics seem to swear just as readily and just as often as those lower down the food chain.
Mini Driver is quite touching as an English student (rich - but not a bitch!) who catches our hero's eye. While bringing dimension to the movie, you get the feeling that this was included in case the rest of the plot flopped. It wouldn't take too much editing to make this the central theme with the rest being the background. However this was not needed.
Too many good moments and too much of an engaging plot for us not be lightly charmed - but I wasn't moved by this movie. Our hero's working class friends are loyal - but that is about all you can say for them. Ben Affleck (in the "best friend" role) shows that haircuts, cheekbones and teeth are still what really counts in tinsel town.
The sterile world of (Boston) academia and the juvenile world of the street (as portrayed here) both alienated me. Can there not be middle way for our will-he-won't-he protagonist? The movie seems just as confused on this point as I am and in the end cops out of answering it.