Anyway, Good Will Hunting was released in 1997, and was directed by Gus Van Sant, and stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver and Stellan Skarsgård. The film centers around the character of Will Hunting (Damon) who is a 20-year old janitor at MIT. (Yeah I know right? MIT!) Well it all made sense to me further on in the film). You see Mr. Hunting is not your average 20-year old. He is extremely gifted. His mathematical knowledge is limitless. There is literally no math problem that he can't figure out. However, with a gift comes his plethora of troubled personality traits. Will is very aggressive, violent, arrogant, cocky, and just downright disturbed. I mean he beats up a guy that was in his kindergarten class. KINDERGARTEN! For crying out loud, I don't remember everyday of kindergarten. Anyway, he was charged with numerous convictions, and was about to be thrown in jail, when an MIT math professor (Skarsgård) takes him in and makes Will promise to do math with him everyday, and he would be released as long as he sees a therapist (Williams). From this point on, Will meets Sean, a psychologist that listens to him, and while they do get off on a rough start, they create a bond that changes both of their lives for good. Also, Ben Affleck plays Will's best friend, and Minnie Driver puts on a wonderful performance as Will's girlfriend, Skylar. The whole film really is a character study of Will, and his life. This film also shows how Sean guides Will in finding what he wants out of life.
LIKES
- As I have said before the acting is phenomenal. Plus, their really are a couple scenes that are tear jerkers, and I am not talking about a chick flick tear jerker. I am talking about scenes that make you feel like you are with the characters, and you are feeling their emotions.
- Robin Williams! Hands down! He is phenomenal, and he deserved the Oscar that he won for this film. He is just an all around great actor, and this is probably my favorite performance by him. His character is so helpful, even if he hated Will at first. He never gives up on him, and that is a character I totally admire. Plus, he plays a real person, and Will was able to relate to that.
- The setting was believable. It just felt so real, as if it was my own hometown, and for some reason I felt like I knew the people that were in it.
- The writing is phenomenal as well. It was even written by Damon and Affleck. It was just again believable. The dialogue did not seem fake at all, and you could really understand what the characters were going through, and of course my all time favorite line, "How do you like them apples?"
- As much as I understand why Skarsgård's character is in the film. There are a couple times where he is just a complete jerk, especially when he argues with Sean about Will's future. He just seems too arrogant, and while I have met people like this in my life. There were just too many times where his arrogance shined through, and I just couldn't handle it.
- The ending. While I like where the ending was going, I wish it would have been more fulfilling. I wanted to know what happened next, and a lot of films use this strategy when you just have to imagine what happened afterwards, but it didn't completely work for me.
OVERALL
This film is a true gem in the drama genre, and I really admire the symbolism of the fact that Will knew a lot about all these subjects, but he didn't really know what it's like to actually pursue these subjects. He also could solve all of these math problems, but never any of his personal problems, well until the ending anyway, which I don't want to give away.
That is it from me the Movie Maniac! Tune in next week for another review! The mania will continue on!
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