Good Will Hunting -- A MustsSee Film

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2013)

Good Will Hunting is an emotional roller coaster of a film. A surprisingly well written (and acted) film by two of today's biggest actors: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Matt Damon plays Will Hunting who is a genius trapped inside the body of a broken orphan, whose emotional damaged past has turned him into a reckless young adult. Will was a believable character with many quick, fluid, long-winded jabs that you would only expect out of the mouth of a well-read genius. His brilliance is discovered by Prof. Gerald Lambeau (Stellen Skarsgard), and leads him to meeting psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) and love interest Skylar (Minnie Driver). Will struggles to find himself, stuck within the disconnect from his past, but finds ways to cope through Sean, Skylar, and best friend Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck).
The main theme of this film is being able to watch Will find connection with others and allow himself to trust and love someone else. As he progresses through the movie, we see him meet Skylar and evolve through the relationship. We also see his bond and relationship with Sean, grow and progress into respect, trust, and friendship.
Another theme of the movie are the many arrays of sociological and psychological issues with every character. Will is constantly battling with his past and the ability to trust, we also see his aggression built up from all of this. Chuckie also has similar aggression issues that we are able to witness in the bar scenes, most likely these are sociological issues from how and where he grew up. Sean is secretly battling the loneliness after losing his wife and too stubborn to open up about it to someone and move on with his life. We later see that Professer Lambeau is upset that his life and reputation has not progressed as far as he would have liked and he has some pent up feelings about this.
Another movie with this similar theme would be the recent, Silver Linings Playbook. The two main characters played by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, are struggling with themselves and their relationships. Yet you come to realize that they are not the only ones with these same inner struggles.
The film techniques are well hidden yet are able to bring this movie to life in a very sneaky way. The scenes when Will visits Sean in his office are often allowing us to see the distance between the two's relationship. We only see one character at a time, or we just see the shoulder of Sean while the camera continues to focus on Will. Gradually as the movie progresses the two are both seen on screen together, portraying that Will's trust in Sean is growing.
In the beginning of the movie we see a short scene of Will reading in his apartment. The camera slowly pulls back, allowing us to view the emptiness around him. This gives us an early look at how Will is in his life. He is alone and disconnected from others.
The use of parallel cutting in the movie allows us to see everything going on at once with the characters. The most prominent of these scenes is at the end where the film cuts between Will leaving a note for Sean, Chuckie stopping to pick Will up from his house, and Sean packing up his things to leave. I think this parallel cutting technique is reminiscent of Will's life and how there are always many things going on in that great mind of his. This movie as a whole is a very realistic and thorough story of a brilliant young man, with a troubling past, who is trying to find himself and allow others to find him. I would highly recommend this film to anyone trying to find one of the best written and acted films of our generation.