IMDb top 250: #133
Rating 8/10
Director: Gus Van Sant
Writers: Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
Starring: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård, Casey Affleck & Cole Hauser
"You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to."
South Boston laborer Will Hunting (Damon), a genius who, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a police officer, becomes a patient of a therapist (Williams) and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned professor (Skarsgård). Through his therapy sessions, Will re-evaluates his relationships with his best friend (Affleck), his girlfriend (Driver), and himself, facing the significant task of thinking about his future.
In the wake of the sad news of Robin Williams' passing I had to watch one of his movies. It was too soon for Mrs Doubtfire, Jumanji or Jack, as I would have been a sobbing wreck by the end, so I opted for Good Will Hunting, a movie I had not yet seen. I grew up with Robin Williams movies, the aforementioned and Hook, Aladdin and Patch Adams. He was a massive talent and an actor who could pull of comedic and dramatic roles with such ease. He will be missed.
His performance in this picture is exceptional. He breathes life into Damon and Affleck's beautiful script and I found myself filling up during the scenes where Sean talks about his late wife. Williams thoroughly deserved his Oscar. Matt Damon is equally as impressive and their scenes together are stunning.
The writing from Affleck and Damon is fantastic. It's poignant and clever and at times very, very funny. It was a bit of a task trying to decipher what Ben Affleck was saying in parts, due to the strong Boston accent but as the movie progressed I got used to it.
Gus Van Sant's direction was good, however the slow motion fight scene at the start of the movie was a bit silly and looked very fake. Had he actually slowed down the footage itself it might have been passable but having the actors act out the fight in slow motion themselves just made it look bad. I also loved Danny Elfman's score, it fitted the tone of the movie perfectly.
A really good film, made even better by the late, great Robin Williams. May he finally find peace!!
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