Review of Good Will Hunting (1997) by Zanele J — 30 Dec 2012

Review by Zanele Jiane.

âThere is nothing in the world more pitiable than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two and who does not perceive that nothing can unite themâ?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

This is a very touching story of a genius who refused to be what everyone expects him to be, yet can't hide his true abilities, which only a few people on the planet posses.

This man has suffered a lot of abuse growing up and is distrustful of others, and does not want to move on with his life because he suffers from an obvious fear of success, heâ(TM)s used to his surroundings and is loyal to his buddies and will always come to their defence when in trouble, like a scene in a bar when a toffee-nosed academic attacks Chuckie by plagiarising a book from the syllabus. His friends love him so much they actually build him a car in the final minutes of the movie for his birthday (touching scene).

But Will is always on guard and view any change as a threat to his comfortable status quo, luckily for him thereâ(TM)s more than enough people rooting for him and working on various levels of his persona to help him see the light of day, and through lots of hard work, the walls of defiance start crumbling down, and he starts to see how he could embrace the change and still keep his integrity.