by Chris Bakker, Contributing Writer
Some of us are just naturally, exceptionally good at things. Most people who find themselves in a position like that are celebrated for their talent in some capacity, while others have their talents exploited by people who can make use of them in some way. What’s often missing from both of those extremes is the attention to the person underneath that talent, and what makes them tick.
Good Will Hunting is one of those movies I related to when I saw it as a teenager, when I was still convinced of my own talents. I’d had teachers tell me how smart I was all my life, and just like Matt Damon’s titular character Will, I never really seemed to have to try very hard. Of course, I turned out to just be a regular person who picked up on things easily, but still I identified with Will because of the rest of his character. Will is abrasive to and dismissive of people who want him to actually do something with his life in the long term, as if they’re putting down the good and honest work he does with his friend Chucky, played by Ben Affleck, and their working class friends (Casey Affleck and Cole Hauser).
What’s behind that facade he puts up, is the fear that if he commits to something, it’s not going to work out. He can do things that are easy for him as long as he likes; there’s no surprises waiting for him on the other side; there’s nobody there to tell him that he’s not good enough after all. He treats a possible academic future the same way he treats a blooming relationship with Skylar (Minnie Driver) — desperate to hide his own perceived flaws and putting up an image of himself that he thinks will be more accepted.
Nominated for nine Oscars, Good Will Hunting won two of them, and it’s really no surprise that its wins were for Best Original Screenplay for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams, because those are exactly the two elements that make the movie sing. Williams’ Sean Maguire has started teaching after the death of his wife, and is asked by Stellan Skarsgård’s Gerald Lambeau to take Will under his wing after a series of disastrous encounters with other therapists.
There we come to the heart of the movie — Sean’s relationship to Will, and the way the two of them start to dance around each other. A battle of wits ensues, where the two try to figure each other out. The real crux of the issue, of course, is that Will is trying to ruin another therapist’s day for the sport of it, while Sean is just trying to figure out what on earth this kid’s deal is. The movie has them sparring with each other and has Sean opening himself up to Will to show him just how easy it is to be vulnerable, in the hopes that somehow Will will pick up on it and allow himself to be honest — not only with Skylar or Lambeau, but also himself.
A movie like this, that really hinges on those conversations between people who feel like they have so much about themselves they feel they have to guard or obfuscate, really leans on the power of its performances and they are of course great across the board. From Sean’s seemingly eternal patience with Will, to Chucky’s straightforward, no-nonsense approach to just about everything in his life, to Lambeau’s obsession with Will’s gifted nature, and Skylar’s consistent attempts at allowing herself and Will to be themselves when they’re around each other, all the ways and directions in which Will is pulled make for such a complete character study of a character who’s being eaten alive by his own doubts about himself.
It’s almost a surprisingly mature movie from the minds of two kids from Boston, but it makes for an interesting retrospective when you look at the work Ben Affleck went on to do as a director, and the way Matt Damon has developed himself into one of the finest actors of his generation. Getting an experienced director like Gus Van Sant on board was a big get for the pair, of course, but the casting of Williams lent an enormous amount of credit for the film, and rightfully so. It’s a movie written by a pair of young, talented people, who someone in a position of great clout saw the potential of. Haunted as it was for a long time by people who claimed Damon and Affleck didn’t actually write the movie, going so far as to claim Kevin Smith wrote a big chunk of it, it’s all the more just that they ended up winning the Academy Award for this screenplay.
You really aren’t going to find a lot of other movies that deal with a good person’s complete lack of belief in himself that’s slowly coaxed out by those who care about him, rather than his talent, and I’m exceptionally happy that it exists.
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