Good Will Hunting (1997)
AIG on Federal support? Icelandic banks collapsing? Collateralised Debt Obligation? You couldn't write a script this volatile. When considering the continually declining economic stability of the UK, you have to ask yourself, just what makes a really good script? Some answers are plain as day; The Truman Show, Jerry Maguire and The Insider are three that I always think of as being a great concept, that was converted into a great script. Good Will Hunting is another. Will Hunting, played by Matt Damon, is an MIT janitor who likes to solve near impossible Maths problems when no one else is around. Will is also a young man with severe emotional problems and a very bad temper. When Will gets in trouble with the law for assaulting a police officer, he is sent to prison. Help arrives, however, in the form of MIT Professor Gerald Lambeau, a magnificent Stellan Skarsgard, who recognising Will's extraordinary ability, offers him a way out.
Frankly I don't care whether or not Matt Damon and Ben Affleck actually wrote it, or if they hired Hollywood screenwriting legend William Goldman to do it for them (which I suspect probably didn't happen). The film is moving and thought provoking, Damon and Affleck's Oscar acceptance speech was even better, and they gave us some of the most quotable moments of script from any American film of that decade: "You spent $50,000 on an education you could have got for $2.50 in late charges at the public library" Will tells a male rival in a Boston bar early on.
Will Hunting is the kind of dark and intriguing protagonist that you cannot help but find fascinating. Matt Damon portrays this emotionally damaged yet mathematically gifted young man with a believable amount of bravado and self loathing. Damon's on screen relationship with Robin William's is perhaps what the film is most heralded for, yet it is his patnership with Ben Affleck that I found the most engaging and emotionally gripping facet of the script. "You're sitting on a winning lottery ticket and you're too much of a pussy to cash it in" he tells his childhood friend in one scene whilst the two take a break from work on a construction site.
Of course Robin Williams's performance as the psychiatrist that cannot bring himself to let this gifted young man fall by the wayside, was Oscar winning, and was surely deserving of this honour. His key role in what was easily one of the most acclaimed movies of that year, and arguably the decade, was surely too hard to ignore. Minnie driver was equally as key as Skylar, the girl that Will spends the film agonising over in one way or another; I haven't seen too much of Minnie Driver but a role as high profile as this one has surely stuck in peoples minds ever since. Her relationship with Will has the ability to make you both laugh heartily and cry desperately, it is surely another of the great successes of the film.
Structurally the film rarely falters, offering a healthy combination of pathos and humour that always seems to keep you on your toes; there is a memorable scene between Williams and Damon in the psychiatrists lounge when the two discuss the importance of imperfection, in specific relation to the flatulence of Williams's former spouse. All in all this is a touching drama, with an active brain and a beating heart; I guarantee you wont be able to forget about it for the rest of the evening, or possibly the next ten years.
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