Review of Good Will Hunting (1997) by Andrew O — 24 Dec 2014

I was hoping for a good night laid, but I'll settle for a kiss.

Will Hunting is a genius janitor that works at MIT. He hangs out nights with his worthless friends that work construction, drink, and make fart jokes. Will has hidden fears due to a tragic past that led to him being raised as an abused orphan. One day, a man discovers Hunting's genius and tries to help him out by having him talk to a friend who has his own troubles. Can Will overcome his inner fears and find happiness?

"There's only so many times you can bang your friend's future wife.".

Gus Van Sant, director of Elephant, Milk, Restless, Promised Land, To Die For, Finding Forester, My Own Idaho, and Drugstore Cowboy, delivers Goodwill Hunting. The storyline for this picture is intricate and well delivered. The characters are very interesting and the dialogue is fairly solid. The cast delivers excellent performances and includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Casey Affleck, and Cole Hauser.

"He was so fucking hammered he drove the wrong car home.".

There's always a movie on your "ashamed you haven't seen" list, this was one of those for me, for the longest. I found this on Netflix and decided to cross it off the list. This wasn't as good as I expected. I thought it would be on par with American Beauty; unfortunately, I felt the film fell a little short and Robin Williams character wasn't as dramatic as I hoped. Overall, this is definitely worth a viewing, but isn't worth adding to your DVD collection.

"Go home and give it a tug yourself.".

Grade: B+/A-.