Good Will Hunting

In 1997, Robin Williams starred alongside Matt Damon in the drama, Good Will Hunting. Written by Damon and Ben Affleck, the film also stars Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgard. It grossed $225 million and was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Titanic. However, Williams won Best Supporting actor and Affleck and Damon won Best Original Screenplay.

20-year old South Boston laborer Will Hunting (Damon) is an unrecognized genius who, after a deferred prosecution agreement for assaulting a police officer, becomes the patient of therapist Dr. Sean Maguire (Williams) and the student of mathematician Professor Gerald Lambeau (Skarsgard).

This was the first time I’ve seen Good Will Hunting in full. And while the ending is somewhat predictable, the film shines in the experiences the characters have. It’s the individual moments that make the film what it is. To borrow a clichéd phrase, it’s not the destination that matters, but the journey.

The most notable moment that stands out is the park scene, where Sean is breaking down Will’s façade. He skewers how the boy can be so knowledgeable about things, but goes into how knowledge of something is a lot different than having an experience with the subject, be it art, love or war. And that’s why Will is not as great as he thinks he is. This scene is also what cemented that Williams was getting the Oscar, mainly because of his great delivery. And Damon really did well in going from confident and smug in how great of a hotshot he is to being proven completely wrong. It also brilliantly helps to bring about Sean finally getting through to him in the end.

Another brilliant moment is in yet another conversation, this time near the end of the film with Chuckie telling Will how big of an idiot he is. Where Sean was able to show Will that he wasn’t all that great, Chuckie shows him that if he would be great if he took his abilities and actually did something useful with them.

Good Will Hunting is a film where the payoff rests in the interactions with the characters rather than a climax and resolution. And it earned Williams a well-deserved Oscar.