Excellent AND Entirely Possible

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2002)

Despite the odd comments by one fellow here who claims to be a mathematician; This was not only an excellent movie but an entirely believable one. Not just believable but IMPORTANTLY so.
Contrary to our mad rush to find the minimal acceptable and attempt to improve the self image of the mediocre, Talent DOES exist. It could be, should be, thought of as the key attribute of man.
And truly talented people CAN teach themselves anything and everything - I learned early in life to use the word genius with caution, when a frustrated (and slightly jealous) teacher said to me as a precocious pre-teen "It is not enough to be a genius (Very High IQ) you have to be a genius AT something" - and that is true, so I will not describe Will as a genius but very talented. One salient point of the movie was Will's trave(ai)l from talent - IQ genius - to being a genius AT something. You know as he's driving off in the wonderful gift from Affleck (who I did think was very impressive, maybe a touch more than Matt) THAT was to become the quest, the search for his proper role / accomplishment / (and yes, contribution). Even though we are encouraged to think it is Mini Driver he seeks, it is himself and that ultimate of all, creative accomplishment (as mathematics can be as creative as sculpture and music).
This understanding and acknowledgement of original talent is also discouraged as we have turned `Education' into a self serving, institutionalized, industry that sells knowledge rather than disseminating it.
One of the best lines in the movie is when Will tells an imitation scholar student that he will eventually discover, if his parents haven't already, that they are spending thousands (hundreds of thousands) to teach him things that can be bought by a talented person with three dollars in overdue book fines from the library.
Perhaps that was what made it such a great movie for me, I've been there, all of it, South Boston and the hallowed halls on Mass Avenue.
I started sitting in college class rooms - auditing - while still a young teen. Had to play hooky from ridiculous `High' School to do it. In fact, I can even appreciate Will's `attitude' as today's society evermore dedicates itself to conformity and forcing same regardless of talent.
Made a pain-in-the-a!! of myself by correcting the professors and knowing the answers before anyone else. Never paid a dime in tuition (even ignoring a bill for campus parking in Cambridge) and got tested out as a Masters in Engineering (by a short lived program from the ASME that was undoubtedly squelched by academia because they weren't getting their piece of flesh).
I DO know whereof I speak, and the `mathematician' is just another one of those jealous of talent.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD, if not downright great, MOVIE!