Sickly-sweet ickyness

Rating: 3/10 (1 March 2013)

From reading reviews of this film I could not figure out why anyone would want to see it, so I didn't bother. As fate would have it though I happened to be on a plane when it was shown as the in-flight movie and so I got to check it out.
I have to say that my view might be influenced by the awful mangling that films get before being unleashed on the flying public. Firstly, all swearwords are either removed or changed to something different, often with hilarious results. (When I saw Money Train "mother-f*!@er" had been changed to "mother-fouler". I think the original was preferable, don't you?) Secondly, anything that resembles a swearword, such as "oh dear" and "my, my, how distressing", is removed. Thirdly, anything of a sexual nature is removed. Ultra-violence is left in and I believe the airlines have a special arrangement whereby extra scenes of violence can be inserted. Finally the colour is distorted, the sound passed fifteen times through a bucket of slime using 1920's technology and the whole thing is projected onto a screen the size of a postage stamp which is half obscured by a person in a big hat. So you have to bear in mind that these things could jaundice my views.
The film, as everyone in the world knows, revolves around a young mathematical genius who works as a janitor until he is discovered by a professor and sent to a shrink. Will Hunting is played by an attractive young man who everyone raves about but whose name escapes me. Robin Williams, almost acting for the first time in his life, is the shrink who shows him tough love. An attractive young woman with an English accent whose name escapes me plays Will's girlfriend. Other characters drift in and out of the film.
So this young genius gets discovered, has a few traumas along the way, teaches his prof and his shrink things they had not realised themselves and they all live happily ever after. End of film.
About half way through the film I began to get interested when Will Hunting actually started to show some anger and treated his girlfriend with casual cruelty. Unfortunately this only lasted about ten seconds before we went back to everyone being nice and speaking in clichés. If only they'd let rip at this point, what a film it could have been. It could be that the airline cut out thirty minutes of dark and dangerous stuff but I don't think so somehow.
Let's have a reality check here shall we? A young man grows up in poverty and is abused by his parents whilst secretly being not only a mathematical genius but also an expert on diverse other academic fields and able to wipe the floor with all comers. His other poor friends all have hearts of gold, club together to buy him a car and feel not the slightest resentment towards him. In a matter of weeks he seduces a conveniently rich young woman, solves the secrets of the universe, gets offered jobs worth zillions of dollars despite lacking formal qualifications and being fashionably anti-establishment, finds a therapist who is not him/herself dysfunctional, heals his inner child and rides off into the sunset in a glow of sickly-sweet ickyness. I don't think so.
I didn't like the in-your-face manipulation of this film, directed by a dazzling young person whose name escapes me. I didn't like the clichéd and hackneyed script. I didn't like the glib solutions to really tough personal problems. This was just the American Dream in another version. We all have some hidden talent and when we decide to follow our dream we will be rich and happy beyond our wildest imaginings. The fact that we received emotional and physical traumas that would cripple the average person for this lifetime and their next fourteen reincarnations can be overcome. We can heal our lives. Hallelujah!
Actually, if I saw this on late night television and I'd had a few beers I'd probably quite enjoy it. But it does not deserve the massive hype and Oscar wins that it has received. No way