At first glance, Gus Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting” is about a young man of extreme intelligence caught between two worlds. On one shoulder he has a brilliant M.I.T. math professor (Stellan Skarsgård) who wants to see him reach his full potential. On the other shoulder is a psychologist, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), who also wants to see him reach his potential. One is an intellectual potential and one is an emotional one. They’re smartly separated by this film; and Will (Matt Damon) is caught between these two concepts, and these two men, in a film that explores, expertly, the complicated yet beautiful nature of the human condition.
That this film was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck—in a time period before either had had great success in Hollywood—is only part of the movie’s charm. That it fluctuates between Cambridge and South Boston, between upper and lower class, never once moralizing on the other, is yet another part. Will and his friends (Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser, Casey Affleck) are lower caste, and divide their time between bars, batting cages, and construction sites. Skarsgård’s Prof. Lambeau divides his time between teaching graduate classes and working on advanced mathematics. And then there’s Maguire, a once mathematical hopeful who decided instead to teach psychology at a community college. But, in an instance of powerful scriptwriting, it is Will who brings these two worlds crashing together after Lambeau—realizing his genius—bails him out of jail after an arrest for street fighting. The effect this event has on all three of them has profound impact on each of their lives in stark and believable ways.
Flawed but Real Characters
What works about this movie is that Van Sant paints his characters as imperfect and sincere people, and each has their own unique faults. We quickly see, in a series of scenes, that Will is defensive, angry, and, sometimes hostile. One day he is polishing the floors of M.I.T. as a janitor, the next solving a insanely complex math proof on a hallway chalkboard, and the next still beating up a kid who used to pick on him in kindergarten in a vicious fashion. There’s anger and aggression in Will. There’s also profound pain, but “Good Will Hunting” is slow to reveal where this pain comes from.
Aside from Will, Sean is probably the most complex character in the movie, and is certainly one of Williams’ best performances caught on camera. Watch as he loses his temper when Will disparages his late wife only to later school Will on what it means to experience life rather than to simply read about it. This scene, filmed in the Boston Commons aside a tranquil pond, punctuated with Williams’ terse, stern speech is possibly the strongest scene in the movie. There’s pain in Sean too, and Williams sells this to us with ease. But unlike Will, who will fight anyone and anything to not feel this pain, Sean is a man who has accepted and made peace with it. But meeting Will gives him a reason to remember why. Williams won an Oscar for ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ and he rightly deserves it.
Robin Williams at His Absolute Best
Matt Damon and Minnie Driver in “Good Will Hunting.” (Photo: Miramax, 1997).
The acting from the remaining cast is good, even those with small or diminished roles. Casey Affleck and Hauser don’t have much in the way of depth, but do what they serve their purpose—to convince us that Will’s friends are inseparable parts of his life that would do anything to help him. Ben Affleck’s character Chuckie—Will’s best friend—is drawn out well also. And, in another of the movie’s most powerful scenes that takes place at a construction site, it is Affleck who shows us how deep Chuckie’s love for Will truly is. Will’s friends are cast alongside another outsider Will meets, Skylar (Minnie Driver) a Harvard student and love interest for Will that threatens him—just as does Sean—to step out of his comfort zone. In a fit of irony for a man of Will’s intellect, it is amongst Skylar and Sean—dealing with emotional discovery, not intellectual—that Will learns and grows the most.
“Good Will Hunting” has a lot of cross character arcs, such as a deep history and resentment between Lambeau and Maguire, that make it about so much more than just Will’s personal growth. The film smartly ties Sean and Will together. Both grow and heal in believable ways throughout the movie, and the film wraps up in a climax that is honest, touching, and sublime—even if audiences might see it coming.
A Simple Logic
This is a smart film. It has heart, it’s tough to watch at times, and, under it all, has a simple logic to it. The things we run from have a way of following us until we confront them. But sometimes we need a little push. And while Hollywood would regrettably lose Robin Williams to suicide, and Affleck and Damon would go on to much bigger things, the film imbues its message simply and fully. It’s not an act of any one person, but a concert of acting, scriptwriting, and emotional healing that makes this a powerful and wonderful picture to behold.
