Good Will Hunting
Stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Well, this movie has all the right elements in it for a good dramatic movie: Boy meets Girl, mostly likable characters and Robin Williams sporting a beard. He always seems to do his best dramatic work when heavily bearded and in this movie there is no exception (he even won an Oscar for his performance). So, do these elements blend well?
Well, yes and no. The acting by all the cast is stunning and very believable, the story isn’t too bad, but the best part is the script. The characters happily (and not so happily) bounce off each other in a very believable way, allowing for deep and detailed people who react to each other in constantly developing relationships. Good, solid cinema, a pleasure to watch.
Now to point out the bits I didn’t like. Firstly I thought the story wasn’t all that believable. For those who don’t know it is about a young man (Will Hunting) who hides his incredible intellect by hanging with his uncouth friends and doing petty crimes, before being ‘discovered’ by a college professor. Where the problem lies is that Will’s intelligence seems too good — he seems to have read EVERY book that has ever been written on every subject, and can speak intelligently on what he has read, even though his conversation skills have rarely evolved past mumblings with his pals. But then again I could have missed a vital point of the movie, or maybe we aren’t meant to consider believability.
To sum up, Good Will Hunting is a brilliantly scripted and acted movie with a couple of flaws here and there to make it more human, if you like these thought-provoking dramas, then it is heartily recomended.
Martin Gabb
