Good Will Hunting (1997)
Directed by Gus Van Sant

Film Review

It's always a pleasure to look back over the careers of our greatest actors and savour those precious moments which they have indelibly chiselled into our collective consciousness.  In the case of Robin Williams, the incomparable comic genius of our age, you hardly know where to begin.  Since his star-making stint as the lovably gauche alien in the hit American sitcom Mork & Mindy in the late 1970s Williams has been like a constant companion to us all, brightening not just our cinema screens but the entire cosmos with his anarchic sense of fun and talent for grappling with complex character portrayals.  It seems almost trivial to ponder what was his finest screen role - there is such a daunting array of perfectly judged performances to choose between.  Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989) and Mrs Doubtfire (1993) each has a claim for showing Williams at his best, but it is in a supporting role in a lesser film that, for this reviewer at least, he accomplished something special.  With its recurring bouts of coarseness and sentimentality Good Will Hunting may not be everyone's favourite film but it is the one in which, as a dramatic actor, Robin Williams is at his most powerful.  It is with consummate ease that Williams steals the film from its lead actor Matt Damon, dazzling with his arresting portrayal of an off-kilter therapist tasked with exorcising a mathematical genius's psychological demons.

Good Will Hunting was the film that established Matt Damon as one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and it also gave a massive career boost to his co-star Ben Affleck, with whom he co-wrote the script (despite many rumours to the contrary).  What was conceived as a rather facile thriller ended up as a downbeat sentimental drama whose glaring plot contrivances are redeemed by some remarkable performances.  Damon and Affleck are superb, as well they might be given that they each took roles they created for themselves, but it is the two main supporting roles that have the greatest impact.  Anyone who has ever met a university professor who has just passed his prime will immediately recognise Stellan Skarsgård's Gerald Lambeau as the real McCoy - the frustration and bitterness of a gifted academic who knows his best years are behind him are palpably rendered by Skarsgård.  Robin Williams is just as convincing as Damon's no-bullshit therapist, a character who has his own hangar-ful of emotional baggage to deal with as he tries to coerce others into coming to terms with their traumas.  The scenes with Damon and Williams are by far the best the film has to offer, incisively written and performed with what can only be described as undiluted integrity by both actors.  Two of Williams' monologues are so intensely poignant that they cannot fail to bring a lump to the throat.

There is also a maturity to Gus Van Sant's direction that isn't anywhere near as apparent in his other films around this time.  Van Sant's mise-en-scène is surprisingly subdued, teetering on the brink of social realism.  The main thing he is up against is a totally implausible narrative, a kind of urban fairytale that just doesn't ring true.  Van Sant gets most of the way in bridging the credibility gap by stressing the ordinariness of his characters and their lives, although it is still a challenge to accept that a kid floor-cleaner could be both a mathematical genius and someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of history (and no doubt a dozen other subjects).  Whatever the film's failings these did not prevent it from being a huge critical and commercial success, raking in over 200 million dollars at the box office (not bad for a film that cost only 10 million to make) and earning no fewer than nine Oscar nominations.  The two Academy Awards that came the film's way were for its screenplay and Robin Williams' highly lauded supporting performance.  Good Will Hunting will always be remembered as the film that made Matt Damon a big, big star, but it is equally deserving of acclaim as the one that allowed Robin Williams to reach the pinnacle of his art as a dramatic actor.

Film Synopsis

Will Hunting is a 20-year-old South Bostonian who earns a meagre crust as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  To look at him, no one would guess that he is a self-educated genius with an agile mind and an insatiable thirst for knowledge.  When Will solves a challenging mathematical problem intended for his students, Professor Gerald Lambeau takes a sudden interest in him and resolves to help him to fulfil his potential.  The next thing Lambeau knows is that Will has been taken into police custody for assaulting a police officer.  The professor arranges for Will to be spared a prison sentence on condition that he submits to a course of behavioural therapy.  After Will aggressively drives away several leading therapists Lambeau enlists the help of his old college roommate, Dr Sean Maguire.  Within a few sessions, Maguire's more subtle approach begins to break down Will's defence mechanism and the rebellious young man suddenly begins to see life in a new light...