Look, its a good movie. Get off your butt and rent it.
I don't get to say that much, and every time I do it's a blessing.
There are really two ways to feel about Good Will Hunting. You can either love it for what it is, or hate it because of what it spawned. You see, because of this movies success, Director Gus Van Sant got his pick of which project to do next. In his infinite wisdom, he chose Psycho.
Idiot.
But, we'll bomb that bridge when we get to it. As of know, let's just sit back and enjoy a movie made before Gus Van Sant lost his mind.
Good Will Hunting is not your typical movie. First of all, it's cowritten by one of my favorite, punching bags, none other then Ben (Phantoms, Armageddon) Affleck. Not only that, but Affleck stars in it, too. And he's good. Real good! Ben Affleck can act. Do you have any idea how much this shakes my moral universe?
Matt Damon is the other script writer of the movie. I give him second bid because, well, I haven't beaten up on him as much as I have Ben Affleck (Oh my God, dude, he can act!).
Anyway, Damon portrays Will Hunting, the smartest person at MIT: the janitor. Between cleaning the floors and solving advanced math equations, Will spends the rest of his time wasting life away with this slacker friends (one of whom is played by Affleck, and, by God, Affleck acts!).
With a short fuse and a violent temperament, it's not long before Will's penchant for street fighting gets him in trouble with The Man. The only thing saving him from jail time is MIT math professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård). Lambeau has seen Will's gift for math first hand and offers to take Will on as his protégé. To good looking to go to jail, Will agrees.
But there's a catch. One of the provisions of Will's probation is that he must see a psychologist. Being the smart little rebellious bastard he is, Will immediately sets out to annoy the hell out of every psychologist he comes across. Desperate, Lambeau turns to his old college buddy, Sean (Robin Williams). Thus begin the scenes that won this movie so many awards.
I can't even begin to describe how well this movie is written. It just has to be seen to believed. And, for once, I mean that in a good way. No, there're no murderous robots, no vampires in goatees, and aposlutly no Bad Movie conventions. This is an honest to God good movie, folks. Go see it.
Without a doubt the scenes between Williams and Damon got this movie to the Oscars. These are the best scenes in the flick, with both characters getting great lines and even better monologues.
But it's not just what these characters say that's so great, it's who they are. One of the great joys of watching a movie is watching the characters come alive right in front of you, becoming totally 3 dimensional. As you probably know, I don't get to see that very often. Sometimes I miss it. When you really care about a character, when you become part of their lives, it's a great experience.
Yes, I'm gushing. So what? It's a good movie. Ben Affleck acts! And it's not just him, either. Robin Williams acts, Matt Damon acts, Stellan Skarsgard, Minnie Driver, John Mighton and the whole damn cast act! They act their asses off and disserve all the rewards they get. Hell, they disserve even more, because they're responsible for creating these great characters, too. They add weight to the words and put meat on the bones, like a great group of actors should.
I don't know what its symbolic message is. I don't know what it has to say about modern society or the way we treat child protégés in that society. I only know Good Will Hunting sucked me into it's world. And that's what counts.
Gs (out of a possible five)
MOCK O' METER
Wanna buy? Check Amazon.