GOOD WILL HUNTING (Miramax - 1997) Starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgard Screenplay by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck Produced by Lawrence Bender Directed by Gus Van Sant Running time: 126 minutes
*** (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: B
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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I think there's one thing that its many enthusiasts and handful of detractors can safely agree on: there isn't anything remotely innovative about Gus Van Sant's latest film, GOOD WILL HUNTING, co-written by stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It is what it is -- a relentlessly feelgood drama following a conventional, utterly predictable storyline focused upon a directionless young man with talent to burn, and the attempts of those around him to help him find the right path. The film's about as unsubtle as a brick through your front window, but damned if it isn't effective.
20-year old Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a once-in-a-generation-type genius who can instantly recall obscure passages from texts and has the inherent raw ability to casually solve mathematical problems which are considered year-long endeavours by some of the world's greatest minds. However, Will's decidedly working-class, and cheerfully so; the film presents the irony of a high school dropout toiling as a janitor at the prestigious MIT who's more brilliant than any of the university's students *or* teachers. He's also a bit of a handful; orphaned and in and out of foster homes during his childhood, Will's had several run-ins with the law. When award-winning professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard of BREAKING THE WAVES and INSOMNIA, in another fine performance) presents his class with a thorny mathematical challenge, he's taken aback when the correct solution appears on the blackboard outside the lecture hall the very next day. None of the students take credit for the anonymous answer (they must be pretty honourable over at MIT; at my old school, you'd find no shortage of brownnosers who'd falsely lay claim to the honour in a heartbeat), but Lambeau is stunned to find that it's Will who's the resident genius when he catches the janitor scrawling the solutions to a second challenge on the blackboard. Before Lambeau can take the prodigy under his wing, Will finds himself under arrest after zealously striking a police officer intervening in a neighbourhood altercation involving him and his buddies Chuckie (Ben Affleck), Morgan (Casey Affleck), and Billy (Cole Hauser). Lambeau convinces the authorities to give Will parole, hinging on a weekly math session and the promise of counseling.
It's at this point where the film shifts its focus to where its interest lies: the relationship that develops between Will and similarly-wounded therapist Sean McGuire (Robin Williams), and how after initial dislike and mistrust, they slowly bond and eventually help each other overcome past traumas. Cue the maudlin music.
The film's hokey and sentimentalist, but it works, successfully remaining uplifting and heartwarming despite its obvious generic formulism. To a good extent, the film's ability to overcome problems associated with predictability can be credited to the solid performances turned in from its impressive cast. Mr. Williams is fine in his quiet, self-contained role, never lapsing into his typical zany persona; he carries himself with demeanour of a man whose silent sadness weighs upon him like an anchor. Meanwhile, Mr. Damon impresses as the title character, effortlessly alternating through Will's many faces -- street tough, brilliant genius, charming suitor, exasperating smart-ass, fragile soul -- he's convincingly persuasive in all of them.
Credit has to be allocated to helmer Gus Van Sant as well, who fortunately refrains from beating the audience over the head during the film's frequent emotionally poignant moments. His helming is thoroughly competent workmanship, with one scene standing out as particularly visually striking: a sequence with Will and new love Skylar (Minnie Driver) contentedly chatting in bed, which is wonderfully lit and shot in close-up by cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier as a great tapestry of flesh and shadows filling the frame, gently shifting and rolling like a series of wakes on the sea.
The GOOD WILL HUNTING screenplay is exceedingly neat and tidy, ensuring that everything is brought full circle, and that every major event in the film meticulously ties into a prior anecdote. This may or may not be a good thing -- it's certainly tidy screenwriting, but it comes across as overly calculated, and plays out onscreen with a noticeable loss of spontaneity, particularly in the film's coda where key lines are dropped like dominos.
I admired that the film's screenplay had the temerity to make its protagonist not only impertinent and belligerent (albeit, naturally, in a loveable, audience-winning sort of way), but even occasionally downright cruel to those around him, goading other sympathetic characters and zeroing in on their soft spots. However, the change in the Lambeau character as the film progressed seemed particularly arbitrary, an artificial means with which to bring the plot to a head.
The themes and storyline of GOOD WILL HUNTING are hardly fresh; they are, however, executed effectively. There's a great deal of crowdpleasing material in the film -- one-upmanship of hissable characters, warm fuzzy emotional epiphanies, cute snappy one-liners -- and if one can ignore the sheer predictability of the story and overlook the shameless tugging on the heartstrings, there's much to enjoy.
If anything, the genesis of the GOOD WILL HUNTING project is more interesting than the film itself. Penned by childhood buddies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck while they were struggling actors, their screenplay generated a bidding war among the studios which quickly elevated to a figure of an even million dollars -- if the actors would detach themselves from the project. Resolved to stay on as actors on their project, the duo stuck to their guns and eventually sold the screenplay (with themselves attached as stars) to Castle Rock Entertainment for a lesser fee of $500 000. The project eventually made its way over to Miramax, who have to be delighted with the way things have worked out; during the interim, these two then-unknowns have blossomed into the hottest young actors working today -- Mr. Affleck, fresh from the critically-acclaimed Kevin Smith film CHASING AMY, will appear in the upcoming summer Bruce Willis vehicle ARMAGEDDON, as well as Dimension's sci-fi thriller PHANTOMS and New Line's comedy BALLING THE JACK. Meanwhile, Mr. Damon seems to have been anointed as Hollywood's new It guy (taking over from pal Matthew McConaughey), scoring coveted roles with directors as esteemed as Francis Ford Coppola (JOHN GRISHAM'S THE RAINMAKER) and Steven Spielberg (the upcoming SAVING PRIVATE RYAN). Well done, gents -- but as for GOOD WILL HUNTING: cripes, what's with the ridiculous title?
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "There was a six-year-old girl sitting near me, and she piped up 'That's Harvey Keitel' within seconds of the film's start. I want to know what that kid's been seeing." - Charles Odell
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