Every so often, I’ll mention that I haven’t seen some popular movie, even good ones, and people will be a bit shocked I, for one reason or another, haven’t seen it. There’s generally a good reason for that. Prior to shelter in place, I did go to the movies at least once a week, often twice, so I do end up seeing most things. But I only really started doing that a couple years ago. Prior to that there were a lot of movies I hadn’t seen. Now, under self-imposed quarantine, I have the time to fill in some of those blanks and see what I’ve missed and how much I may or may not have liked it.
Case in point, I finally saw Good Will Hunting.
Written by longtime pals and co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the movie is about Will Hunting (Damon), a troubled young man from the poor side of Boston. He works as a custodian in MIT, and he’s a genius, entirely self-taught. After beating a challenging math equation set out for students, he gains the attention of Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), and Lambeau wants to nurture Will’s gift for math. However, Will has some legal troubles that also require therapy, and the only therapist who can stand to spend more than one session with Will is Lambeau’s estranged college friend Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams). Will is brilliant, a voracious reader with something like a photographic memory, knowledgeable in multiple subjects, but outside of his small circle of neighborhood friends (including a pair played by both Affleck brothers Ben and Casey), he’s not someone who wants to let people in due to what he’s been through.
That poses a problem if he wants to keep his new girlfriend, Harvard student Skylar (Minnie Driver). She clearly loves him, but he doesn’t want to let her in, possibly out of fear she wouldn’t like what she saw, or possibly because he’s been hurt too many times in his young life by people who were supposed to care for him. Can Will find a path for himself?
Alright, so, let’s face it: this movie is as touching as its reputation. Damon and Affleck’s script reflects the central issue of what is to become of Will Hunting. He’s brilliant, but surly. He can spout off an endless parade of facts from books most people don’t crack, but his personal experience doesn’t go much beyond that. And just about everybody in the movie seems to want him to do…something. If anything, the biggest conflict comes between Lambeau and Maguire. Neither of them want to hurt or hinder Will. They just have very different ideas on what Will should do reflective on their own experience. Lambeau wants to see Will continue to excel with math and do great things with numbers that could change the world. Maguire isn’t against that, but he wants Will to experience life and happiness more.
If anything, the fact that everyone wants what’s best for Will is something of a mild knock on the movie. Affleck’s Chuckie, in a moment that seems to fully cement what and where Will’s life is going to go, has a speech about how the worst thing he goes through is picking Will up for work every day because he sees his brilliant friend is still in the crappy apartment doing manual labor when he could be doing so much more. It’s an important moment for Will’s character, but doesn’t really suggest there’s much to Chuckie beyond wanting Will to do better. Granted, the words that give Will the impetus to change things probably have to come from Chuckie, but they seemed a little too much.
And for all that Damon has a real star-making turn here, it’s easy to see why Robin Williams was such a beloved actor from his performance here. Restrained by the standards of most of Williams’s work, his Dr. Maguire is a man of quiet warmth who isn’t afraid to maybe threaten a young punk patient who goes too far. A man of wisdom and compassion, he was the man needed to help Will find connections to other human beings, and Williams plays the role brilliantly. Add in Gus Van Sant’s gentle direction, and you have a touching character study that, quite frankly, I probably should have watched years ago.
But hey, I have seen it now.
Grade: A-
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