Good Will Hunting

A movie by Gus van Sant jr.

With Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Stellan Starsgard, Minnie Driver and others

Christina says:

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is highly intelligent, but since he was orphaned at an early age and grew up in more or less adequate foster care his talent was never discovered. Therefore he only sweeps floors at the MIT instead of being a student and works off his frustrations in senseless fights. But the autodidact can’t keep his hands off the math problems written on the blackboards in the corridors. Thus he catches the attention of professor Gerry Lambeau (Stellan Starsgard) who starts to teach him. The terms of Will’s probation after an arrest state that he has to begin a therapy. He fools some very successful therapists. Lambeau then takes him as a last resort to his old friend Sean McGuire (Robin Williams). After a few initial problems McGuire manages to reach the insecure boy and helps him get a grip on his life and talent.

Robin Williams once more appears with a beard in this movie, a sure sign that this is one of his more "serious" roles. He obviously is comfortable with the part of the understanding therapist who solves not only his patient’s problems but also has some of his own to cope with. He tells a few stories, sits there with a friendly smile on his face. Then a big bear hug, and everything is fine. Matt Damon and Stellan Starsgard outshine him without effort. Williams is at his best when his gentle therapist clashes with Starsgard’s ambitious mathematician.

When this movie was discussed not much was said about Stellan Starsgard, which he doesn’t deserve. He plays a wonderfully arrogant bastard who envies the way Will just grasps everything he himself has to work hard for. He does care for Will in his own way, but he also sees him as his ticket to fame as the man who discovered him.

Matt Damon convincingly plays Will as an angry as much as vulnerable young man. He is torn between the new world that opens up for him and the wish to be just like his buddies.

Damon and his friend Ben Affleck who plays Wills best friend Chuckie wrote the script together. But they need some more practice before they try their hand at another script. The story was all too flimsy and worked only because of the good actors. The sideswipes against psychotherapy and the politics of the NSA were rather amusing, though.

I’ve seen worse movies, but wouldn’t shower this particular one with Academy Awards.

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Christina Gross