Generally it seems that people who write supernormal characters for themselves fall into that Kevin Costner trap of self-aggrandizing moronic yabbering, but not so with these guys. Damon writes himself as a sympathetic guy who is what he is but doesn't care to be so, who loves his beer-swilling friends but happens to have an extraordinary wealth of book knowledge and comprehension. Williams in particular spends a great deal of the movie pointing out Damon's flaws and his immaturity. At no point do we feel that Damon is unavailable to us or that he himself thinks he is just hot stuff. Damon gets involved with Minnie Driver, and she is not just a babe for him to play with while the plot skims along, driven by Danny Elfman's unElfmanesque score.
Driver is great and everyone is great.
It's all I can say, really. I didn't cry, as some of my men friends have, because I guess women don't have these same emotional walls and infallibility standards that men do. Directed by Gus Van Sandt, a man one could say is not known for churning out crowd-pleasers, Good Will Hunting seems to be totally loyal to the material and not concerned with Hollywoodizing it up. Pulp Fiction producer Lawrence Bender may have helped Van Sandt along here. Robin Williams, I am pleased to say, is back where I love him most - playing gently humorous but deeply heartfelt characters.