Good Will Hunting is a pleasant surprise. Everything about the premise says ‘derivative, formulaic, predictable.’ But to the credit of screenwriters and stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, as well as director Gus Van Sant, the film rises above its apparent limitations to rest in the upper stratosphere as one of the better films of 1997.
Will Hunting (Damon) is a brilliant but tormented young man. Clearly a mathematical genius, he also has a rap sheet longer than the formulas on the MIT chalkboards that he cracks open like stale walnuts. After his latest violent encounter, our hero is saved from doing serious time by MIT Math Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgaard) who recognizes the lad's brilliance and bails him out on two conditions: Will must attend math tutorials with Lambeau and undergo therapy.
Amidst all this, the undeniably charming and good looking Mr. Hunting manages to attract the attention of a bright and beautiful Harvard undergrad (Driver). At this point Good Will Hunting could easily have gone south: tough, demanding professor lights a spark in the belligerent youth - beautiful girl shows him how to love and be loved - therapist unravels all the tangled threads of his torment. Fortunately, the movie is saved from most of these predictable fates.
Good Will Hunting takes a different tack and the movie is much better for it. The dialogue is consistently fresh, rooted firmly in place (South Boston) and this ear for dialogue brings each character to life. The plot occasionally seems a bit contrived (there are a lot of plot lines and relationships to juggle) but that is a minor quibble in a film as consistently engrossing as this one.
Good Will Hunting is a confident film with great performances (I only wish the lovely Driver was given a little more to do) and an authentic look, sound and feel.
