Impressive, if just a bit predictable

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2005)

This is the writing debut of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Yep. They wrote this movie. I had a hard time believing it when I read it, too. Something that made it easier to believe what that I read in the trivia section that they originally wrote it as more of a Hollywood-like film, with government conspiracies and such. Luckily, they were advised to drop everything but the core drama. The result is this very interesting and thoroughly entertaining film. The story of one young man with vast, unused talent. Like many other dramas, this is based primarily in the dialog and the characters. Some of the most interesting scenes in the film are those where you see the interaction, the conversations between Damon and Williams. They play off each other very nicely. Gus Van Sant's fairly vague and undistinguished directorial style fits the story well, and I really enjoyed the usage of the cameras in the fight scene early in the film. The film has plenty of clever writing, mainly noticeable in the dialog. The plot is very good. The pacing is mostly good, though the film gets a tad slow every once in a while. Near the end I felt like it could have been shorter without hurting the film. The acting is all top-notch, though some of the dialects could have used a bit more work. Something that bothered me a bit about the end was how inconclusive and yet Hollywood-like it was. We don't really know what happens to Will Hunting after the film... but we get the feeling that he's going to be fine. I prefer the ending to 8 Mile, which was a good bit more ambiguous. In the end, a pretty good writing debut, and a solid directing effort by Van Sant. I recommend this to fans of dramas and the various names involved in it. 8/10