GOOD WILL HUNTING

This film gets by on the strength of its script. Sure Gus Van Sant is pulling the strings and drawing good performances out of his actors, but it’s the script that’s the real star. The script is so good that when the film was first released, way back in 1997 there was something of a squabble over who really wrote what. There were accusations that William Goldman - who only ever provided a couple of pointers - was a ghostwriter who completed the script. Goldman himself refutes any allegations of the kind, saying “I would love to say that I wrote it. Here is the truth. In my obit it will say that I wrote it. People don't want to think those two cute guys wrote it”. Those cute guys are also this movie’s stars – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Whilst there’s little doubt that this is their script, you can understand why this agnosticism might creep in. It evokes a kind of world-weariness, a world of talent spurned where frustrated, violent and psychologically damaged characters seek or avoid their purpose. Essentially, it comes across as the work of a seasoned pro. How could somebody who wrote this want to be a part of something as messy as Pearl Harbour (2001)? Despite a couple of slip-ups Damon and Affleck have proved themselves to be two of the most intelligent and talented people at work in the film industry right now – Matt Damon in his acting choices, Affleck mostly in his choices behind the camera (Gone Baby Gone and The Town). So thirteen years later, it’s not so surprising: two enterprising and talented kids write a superb script - no big deal.

Matt Damon plays Will Hunting, a young prodigy with a penchant for solving the most complex of maths problems with the least possible application. He is a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his clandestine problem-solving soon lands him under the watchful eye of Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård) a prize winning mathematician. Like any good Bostonian, Will frequents bars during the day with his buddy Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck) watches minor league baseball games and drives around looking for trouble. As a child of abuse Will’s hatred has slowly shifted into a subconscious self-loathing which permeates through his every action. He is quick to violence, he doesn’t want to let anybody into his life – including his girlfriend Skylar (Minnie Driver) and worst of all he refuses to acknowledge his full potential. Professor Lambeau in an attempt to keep Will out of prison has him assigned a psychologist. This man, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) knows something about wasted talent and a tough upbringing. Gradually he is able to break down Will’s defences and the two of them become friends of a sort.

That’s a sketchy plot outline – it’s a simple coming of age story. More so than in many a Bildungsroman does location play an important role in Good Will Hunting. Surprisingly, given that this is the work of two Bostonians, Boston is presented as an oppressive, dream crippling industrial sepulchre. At the end of the film any character that has a hope for the future is seen getting out of Boston. Will and Skylar escape Boston for California and Sean heads out on a prolonged vacation to India, China and Baltimore. It takes some level of maturity to paint the place you love in this kind of light. It’s a fine marker of the success of this film that it adeptly communicates both why one would want to live a life of this kind and why one would be so keen to get away.

Some viewers have a problem with the bad language in this film. I, on the other hand, barely noticed it. This can only be due to the script’s natural flow: the language offers a kind of poetic realism; the conversation is so smooth and unforced that it moves the plot forward without ever drawing attention to itself. Sure, there are great lines in here but they don’t really draw attention to themselves (except, perhaps ‘how do you like those apples’). The bad language didn’t strike me as gratuitous, this is how young men around the world speak, it is no different in Boston than it is in London. We are all, more and more in the process of developing potty-mouths – and we have been for a long time.

The performances are pretty much routinely great. Matt Damon pulls off something of a coup in creating a believable scarred genius. He’s equally good in his reflexive moments as he is in his more explosive, violent moments. Robin Williams gives his role an effortless pathos – the kind he is capable of bringing to a character when he challenges himself to step out of his comfort zone.

Re-watching Good Will Hunting I was worried that Skylar, pretty much the only important living female character would turn out to be underwritten or underdeveloped. I was wrong however – consider the fantastic and surprisingly tense scene where she first meets Will’s friends. In the process of telling a joke she puts on a mock Irish accent and we have no idea how Will’s friends, usually so quick to anger, will react. It’s a relief when they all break into laughter at the punchline. Skylar is both intelligent and ignorant; she is lovable without being perfect. We can understand why Will would follow her to California. This is endemic of pretty much every aspect of this film, there’s not a motive or impulse left unaccounted for – this is sharp, well structured and well acted stuff. It’s also the product of two cute guys, believe it or not.