#73 Good Will Hunting

In Summary

Good Will Hunting is a heart-warming tale of how a simple janitor who just liked to hang out with his friends and drink beers turned out to be one of the greatest maths geniuses ever.

The film that launched the careers of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and features Robin Williams in one of his career-best roles, Good Will Hunting is a story about realising unrealised potential.

The protagonist, Will Hunting (Matt Damon), begins the film content earning just enough money from his janitorial posting at a local university to pay for his beers with his best friends at the weekend. In a key scene early on in the film, Will shows off his intellectual prowess in order to show off in front of a girl - Skylar, who would become his love interest. It not only demonstrates Will's intelligence but that his character is content with being the smartest person in a room rather than applying it to better his life.

Will's life-changing moment comes when he solves a supposedly impossible mathematical equation left by professor at the university and is eventually tracked down and asked to assist the professor in his research. Will reluctantly agrees, with the professor sensing there is something deep down that is holding him back, leading him to enforce Will to pursue therapy to resolve his problems.

The problem with that though is that Will's desire to be the smartest person in the room leads him to intellectually ousting each therapist in a similar manner to the guy at the bar. That leads the professor into enlisting the help of his former academic partner, Dr Kevin Maguire (Robin Williams), who came from a similar background to Will.

It is these scenes where the doctor eventually gets through to Will that are the film's most touching moments. It is here that we learn that Will was an orphan who had been abused by his foster father, which has led him to sabotaging his relationships in order to avoid emotional pain. The rest of the film is about Will learning to trust those around him and finally realise his potential.

A Memorable Quote

You know what the best part of my day is? It's for about ten seconds from when I pull up to the curb to when I get to your door. Because I think maybe I'll get up there and I'll knock on the door and you won't be there. No goodbye, no see you later, no nothin'. Just left.

Things You May Not Know

• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck - who wrote the film together - deliberately put in an out-of-context sex scene between their two characters into the script in order to test which studios actually read their script. Using that trick, they assessed that Harvey Weinstein's Miramax studio was the most suitable studio for their film.
• Mel Gibson was initially offered the chance to direct this film before it eventually was given to Gus van Sant.
• Damon initially wanted to make Will a physics prodigy, but chose against doing so after discussing it with a former professor of his.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
Good Will Hunting is a film so ridden with cliches that it feels disingenuous. I just don't believe that someone who looks like Matt Damon would be a janitor and that a janitor that looks like Matt Damon would be a secret maths prodigy and that a maths prodigy who became a janitor who looks like Matt Damon would have been content with working at a university. That's where my problems with this film begin.

With ropey dialogue - not least, "Do you like apples/how do you like them apples?" - often containing some problematic sexual overtones, this film has aged exceptionally badly since its release at the end of the 90's.

This is a bad film.