After many years and several recommendations from people I know, I finally watched Good Will Hunting yesterday. I had heard a lot of good things about it and enjoyed the clips from it that I’d seen, but I had no idea how much I’d enjoy the movie in its entirety. If you want to avoid spoilers, I suggest either skipping to the final paragraph of this review or coming back here after you watch the movie.
Good Will Hunting stars Matt Damon as the title character. Hunting is brilliant, especially at mathematics, but works at manual labor jobs to support himself; he first works as a janitor and then later as a construction worker. While cleaning the floors at MIT, he sees a difficult math problem that Professor Gerald Lambeau (played by Stellan Skarsgård) has posted as a challenge for the students. Hunting solves the problem in his spare time and anonymously writes the answer on the hallway blackboard. Lambeau is astonished that anyone could solve it so quickly. When he poses an even more difficult problem, Hunting once again solves the problem, but this time Lambeau catches him in the act; Hunting, being an aggressive and private person, walks away while cursing at the professor. After Hunting is arrested for getting into a fight, Lambeau bails him out and agrees to keep him out of prison if he uses his talents to help the professor and regularly sees a therapist.
However, Hunting is uninterested in therapy and does whatever he can to drive away each therapist. In desperation, Lambeau turns to his old college roommate, Sean Maguire (played by the late Robin Williams), for help. Maguire agrees to talk with Hunting despite being a psychology professor rather than a practicing psychologist. Unlike his predecessors, Maguire shows more interest in learning about Hunting as a person than trying to steer him in a certain direction or put him into a box. Over time, the two become friends due to their honest conversations and similar life experiences. Meanwhile, Lambeau becomes increasingly frustrated with Hunting’s disinterest in pursuing a career in mathematics and, in Lambeau’s eyes, setting himself up to become a failure, which is how Lambeau sees Maguire. Ultimately, their frequent interactions cause both of them to rethink some things in their own lives and the two part ways when their time together is through, with Hunting choosing to forgo a promising job offer in favor of trying to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend (played by Minnie Driver) and Maguire setting off to travel the world while attempting to recover from his wife’s death a few years prior.
In addition to amazing performances, Good Will Hunting is a gorgeous movie. Director Gus Van Sant makes use of a lot of long takes during which the actors can move and talk naturally. There is great use of music throughout the movie but also many quiet moments, with the only sounds being those created by the actors on set. This, combined with the long takes and stellar performances, gives the movie a sense of realism that is also present in many of my other favorite movies. Good Will Hunting feels like a glimpse into the lives of these people and an exploration of what drives them. The movie is rated R for its strong language, but if you can get past that, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen and I’m glad I gave it a watch.