Good Will Hunting (1997)
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who is failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.
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11 films that influenced Good Will Hunting
What critics say influenced Good Will Hunting
The bonding between these two troubled men recalls "Ordinary People," albeit with much rougher edges and darker humor.
Teaming up with director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For), the two have forged a fitfully engaging saintly-misfit fable glazed with Hollywood-therapeutic ''sensitivity'': It's Searching for Bobby Fischer meets Ordinary People as reimagined by Oliver Sacks.
As the story converges from several threads into an overall theme of finding one's way in the world, it emulates "The Graduate" ever so slightly (or maybe it's just the Simon and Garfunkel-inspired soundtrack).
You could say that it's a cross between "The Graduate", "Amadeus" and "Dead Poets Society" or something.
Yet audiences drawn by the Van Sant credit are likely to be surprised at least, and disappointed at most; "Good Will Hunting" never veers from a mainstream course, again recalling "Dead Poets Society," in which Peter Weir--noted for the singularly voiced likes of "The Last Wave"--made a resolutely ordinary studio movie.
At times, it seems like a feel-good version of film by British director Mike Leigh ("Life Is Sweet," "Secrets and Lies"), who uses a similar technique to allow his actors to get inside their roles.
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Of course, you have to have a working knowledge of 2001 popular culture to get some of the jokes (like why Biggs is constantly called “pie-f*cker”) and the Good Will Hunting sequel stuff is obvious in a still rather clever way (no one does self-effacing better than Matt Damon).
When he's not doing that he's out drinking down at the local pub or engaging in the sort of street-tough shenanigans that gave Alex in A Clockwork Orange such a bad name.
Quentin Tarantino has described "Pulp Fiction" as his fantasy version of a "Starsky and Hutch" episode; by that standard, "Good Will Hunting" is Damon and Affleck's version of an ABC After-School Special.
Director Van Sant (To Die For, My Own Private Idaho) has distilled the personal stories to breath-gasping dimension and he has layered in the philosophical themes in correct perspective — as subsets to the human stories.
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An impressive scripting debut for actors Matt Damon ("John Grisham's The Rainmaker") and Ben Affleck ("Chasing Amy"), "Good Will Hunting"--perhaps in part because it feels so little like a film by Gus Van Sant ("To Die For," "Drugstore Cowboy"), who directs--drew the second-strongest audience response at ShowEast.
It was directed by Gus Van Sant (“ Drugstore Cowboy ,” “ To Die For ”), who sometimes seems to have perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue; look at the scene where Matt and Skylar break up and say hurtful things, and see how clear he makes it that Matt is pushing her away because he doesn't think he deserves her.
Overshadowed by the new celebrity of local heroes Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, co-writers and stars of Good Will Hunting, is the revelation that director Gus Van Sant, who has given us such black comic assaults on the American way as Drugstore Cowboy and To Die For, has a warm and fuzzy side.
Teaming up with director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For), the two have forged a fitfully engaging saintly-misfit fable glazed with Hollywood-therapeutic ''sensitivity'': It's Searching for Bobby Fischer meets Ordinary People as reimagined by Oliver Sacks.
Teaming up with director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For), the two have forged a fitfully engaging saintly-misfit fable glazed with Hollywood-therapeutic ''sensitivity'': It's Searching for Bobby Fischer meets Ordinary People as reimagined by Oliver Sacks.