Good Will Hunting

 

Good Will Hunting 1997

• Director: Gus Van Sant
• Seen by this director: Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Milk, Paris je t’aime, My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgård, Minnie Driver, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matt Damon – The Martian, Interstellar, Elysium, Contagion, True Grit, Invictus, The Informant, The Brothers Grimm, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Bourne Identity, Dogma
• Robin Williams – The Butler, House of D, Insomnia, Hamlet, Hook, Dead Again, Awakenings, Dead Poets’ Society, Good Morning Vietnam, The World According to Garp
• Stellan Skarsgård – Mamma Mia 1&2, Melancholia, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur, Dogville, The Glass House, Dancer in the Dark, Amistad, Good Will Hunting, Breaking the Waves, Hamlet, Den enfaldige mördaren
• Minnie Driver – I Give It a Year, The Phantom of the Opera, Ella Enchanted, Absolutely Fabulous, Return to Me, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Politician’s Wife, Circle of Friends
• Ben Affleck – Gone Girl, Daredevil, Dogma, Shakespeare in Love, Armageddon
• Casey Affleck – Light of My Life, Manchester by the Sea, Interstellar, Gone Baby Gone, Lonesome Jim, Hamlet
• Why? I remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 16 January 2023      

       Will (Damon) is a school janitor raised in a series of foster and homes now on parole for fighting. He also solves the nearly impossible formulas the math professor Lambeau (Skarsgård) puts on the hall black board, quotes economic textbooks for Harvard show-offs and cites law books in his many court appearances. He has a photogenic memory and is a math and chemistry genius.

       Lambeau keeps him out of jail (this time) by taking him under his wing on two conditions. That he proves he can do the math, and that he see a therapist. The math? Easy. The therapist? Not so easy. Until Lambeau introduces him to an old classmate Sean (Williams).

       It’s an appealing film but it’s too slick. It’s an admirable achievement for the writers Affleck and Damon. I’ve always liked Minnie Driver and I have a little crush on Casey Affleck, especially here where he’s a cute cheeky foul-mouthed kid, and the film is good, at moments even brilliant. But it also has moments of triteness. But they were young.      

4* of 5