Good Will Hunting Review
by Scott Renshaw (renshaw AT inconnect DOT com)January 4th, 1998
GOOD WILL HUNTING
(Miramax)
Starring: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgaard, Minnie Driver.
Screenplay: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Producer: Lawrence Bender.
Director: Gus Van Sant.
MPAA Rating: R (profanity, violence, adult themes)
Running Time: 120 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Of all the reasons I was pleasantly surprised by GOOD WILL HUNTING -- and there were several -- the easiest to identify was its subversive awareness of its own genre. The story of a troubled genius named Will Hunting (Matt Damon) forced to work with emotionally wounded psychiatrist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) was ripe for the sort of cathartic therapeutic hokum which has passed for emotional honesty in films like ORDINARY PEOPLE or the recent BLISS. I called long ago for a moratorium on physician-heal-thyself psychiatrists as a cinematic type; therapy sessions as revelatory contrivance seemed just as ready for mothballs.
GOOD WILL HUNTING can't possibly steer clear of every pitfall associated with therapy-centered drama, but it's conscious enough of those pitfalls to provide a goofy sense of originality. The script, by Damon and his co-star and real-life buddy Affleck, keeps the dialogue between Will and Sean generally smart and smart-alecky (particularly sharp was a pastoral scene which Will describes as a "Taster's Choice moment between the guys"). The arc of their relationship is convincing and patiently developed, with Williams and Damon sharing an impressive chemistry. In fact, chemistry defines the cast from top to bottom -- Will's friendships with his working-class chums, his romance with a British Harvard student (Minnie Driver), and even Sean's contentious friendship with the MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgaard) who envies Will's gift. The performances are consistently strong enough (even Robin Williams in his "bearded, ergo serious" mode) to carry GOOD WILL HUNTING through its inevitable dips into confrontation, as well as a running time which could have used a judicious twenty minutes of trimming.
Strongest of all is Damon himself in a dazzlingly charismatic piece of screen acting. Both believably brilliant and convincingly rough around the edges, Damon avoids the too-common actor's trap of white-washing his character's dark side. That dubious distinction, unfortunately, goes to director Gus Van Sant, who turns Will's primary surge of violence into a slow-motion ballet, undercutting the character's pent-up rage. It's too conventional an instinct for a director who has rarely done anything the conventional way, offering Damon a protection he simply doesn't need. As both actor and writer, Matt Damon gives GOOD WILL HUNTING energy, soul and a welcome desire to avoid trite situations. It's a rare drama which satisfies without pandering, a feel-good, heal-good session which gives you just a little hope that every trip to the couch doesn't have to be a trip into Cliche-Land.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 Hunting trips: 7.
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