How do you like them apples?

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2004)

I really enjoy watching this film, and it is one of the very few films that I think I could get to the end of it and actually stand to go straight back to the beginning and watch it all over again.
Whether it is intentional or not, this film runs far deeper than it appears to. The fact that Will (Matt Damon) is a brilliant mathematician and incredibly intelligent is not what is important, and for me it is not the drive of the film. Too many people pick at the plot holes concerning Will's "gifts" and it spoils their interpretations of the film. Will's genius is simply an intriguing aspect that provides foundations for what I think is more complexity.
What this film does is embrace the fact that there is nothing more important in life than other people. Will represents a safe path, a life that so many of us choose to live because we feel comfortable. Sean (Robin Williams) and Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) represent two paths out of safety and into something that is ultimately more worthwhile. Sean encourages a life encompassed by love, intimacy and experience, while Lambeau represents a life immersed entirely in intellectual achievement and the social high ground. One of these paths is, while incredibly gratifying, essentially empty, whereas the other is entirely fulfilling.
This film helps us understand that we can't learn everything about life from books. Life is about the precious little experiences that are personal to us, that really matter, that touch our hearts or make us think. It is about experiencing the little imperfections in people that make them beautiful only to you. And throughout life, it is important that we follow our hearts and do what we truly want to do, and not what society expects of us.
Ultimately, like so many films, Good Will Hunting is about love. But it conveys the emotion in ways that are more subtle, and beyond the boundaries of oozy sentimentality that few films bother to cross.
How do I like them apples? I like them a lot.