Your average day reality-hits-you movie, except better...

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2009)

I kept rewinding the part in the credits where it said that the movie was written by Ben Affleck. And then I kept looking at the DVD box that said that he won an award for it as well. Never really liked him as an actor, but I guess he has some strength in writing.
So the film is about a young adult named Will Hunting. We see that he lives alone in a small house because his parents abandoned him, works as a janitor at MIT, and spends most of his nights with his friends at bars. But what we also learn in this movie is that Will Hunting is a genius; he has incredible strengths in the fields of not only mathematics, but in all other subjects as well. And when a professor finds out that it was Will Hunting that solved the two Algebraic graph theory problems that was supposed to be solve by a student, rather than a janitor right outside his hallway, the professor goes out to help Will. Under the professor's supervision, Will must educate himself more with Algebraic graph theory class with the professor and sees a therapist two times each week.
The rest is just about him trying to find himself. This movie is great and nobody can doubt it. I mean, the message that the movie brings really entertains me because sometimes we can not judge others for just how they may act everyday. It also shows how there are many individuals out there in the world that may have really high IQs, but do not know how to apply it to daily life. And that is what Will Hunting exactly is.
Now I have seen Robin Williams a lot in stand up comedy and he was really funny. And there were some parts in the movie that Robin Williams was funny. But I am telling you, the Juilliard studying really came out in this movie. He was persuasive with the character he was playing and had parts where he had to keep expression that many actors struggle to have. And those actors are not even comedians like Robin Williams. Matt Damon also acted well going from charismatic joking to deep depressing attitudes. However, I really did not care for Affleck or Driver's acting. It was alright. The thing was that once you saw Damon and Williams act, those two were okay.
The only problem I had with this movie (and if it were not for this problem, I would be giving this film somewhere in the eight range), was that there was unneeded raunchy dialogue and cursing during the back and forth discussions with Will Hunting and his little entourage. I get it that the movie takes place in South Boston, a ghetto if you may say. But still, really? Cursing to make a movie sound good? I mean, I have seen movies where cursing is used a lot more than this film, but there were scenes in this film where you really wanted them to be poignant and because one of the character said the f-word in an incorrect spot during the dialogue, it ruins it. This goes for Damon, Affleck, Williams, and Driver.
But this movie really tied up things great in the end. Everything that may have been confusing all comes down well in the end and you get a piece of reality once you finished this movie. I was going to give this movie a low seven as I watched it, but only when you finish this movie, I will have to give it now a high 7. Usually highly-recommended films would be eight or higher, but I say that this would be a nice movie to watch.