Entertaining piece of sentimental Hollywood tosh

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2002)

A rags to riches story where a working class boy is a mathematical genius who prefers a working class existence of bar rooms, fights and ball games to an academic life. However when he is discovered by a professor at a trial for public disorder he is released into his care to have tuition and therapy. Sean Maguire is brought in for the therapy while Will and his friend Chuckie go on with their normal lives.
This is a quite hyped film (the rise of scriptwriters Damon and Affleck was already along the way before this hit - there's is not quite a rags to riches story for them), however there is much to enjoy here. The story never fully explains how Will came to develop his talent or even how he came to know about it - was he born knowing everything about maths? You feel that Will could have been given a little less arrogance - nobody knows everything. However the story is quite interesting and it's given such a fairytale gloss that details are not important.
The script also gives Williams a chance to do yet another tear-jerker role and get an Oscar for his troubles. Affleck and Driver are also good in support but Damon is the lead. His character has layers and he does have plenty of good scenes, but the main problem is that his arrogance is not shown as a negative trait and it tends to make him a little unsympathetic.
Overall a good piece of Hollywood fairy tale gloss that does what it has to do - not a classic but it's a nice bit of sentimental tosh.