Most of the narrative consists of intense one-on-one sessions between Will and Sean, two equally stubborn, equally wounded men. In essence, script is structured as a battle of wills, with four individuals vying for Will’s soul: a mathematician, a therapist, an affluent British student named Skylar (Mini Driver), who has a crush on him, and his buddy, Chuckie (Affleck). Finally, Lambeau summons his old, alienated classmate, Sean McGuire (Williams), a community college instructor and therapist - and the real drama begins. Lambeau makes two conditions: that Will meet with him once a week for a math session and that he begin therapy.Ī succession of psychologists tries to reach Will, using various techniques (including hypnosis), but he won’t cooperate. It’s the only way for Will to get parole after a number of run-ins with the law. Lambeau begins a search for the mysterious student, and upon finding Will takes him under his wing. When big-shot professor Lambeau (“Breaking the Waves’ ” Stellan Skarsgard) presents a math challenge to his students, with a fine reward to match, Will anonymously solves the formula on a blackboard placed in the school’s corridor. He can also solve difficult mathematical problems with an ease that makes MIT’s richer and more educated students envious of him. Blessed with a certain genius, Will, who has never attended college, can summon obscure historical references based on his exceptional photographic memory. Nonetheless, it’s a testament to Van Sant’s idiosyncratic talent that he endows the narrative, particularly its first chapters, with the nihilistic humor and deceptively casual style that have marked his best work, “Drugstore Cowboy” and the more eccentric “My Own Private Idaho.”Ĭo-written by thesps Damon and Ben Affleck, who have known each other since childhood in Boston, protagonist is Will Hunting (Damon), a 20-year-old lad who works as a janitor at MIT and spends most of his time with his coarse friends at the neighborhood bar. Thematically, film recalls Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and especially Jodie Foster’s “Little Man Tate,” which also revolved around a child genius of the working class. Fans of Van Sant’s earlier, offbeat films may be disappointed by the more conventional attributes of “Good Will Hunting,” a “problem” drama dealing with the complex relationship between a rough, extraordinarily gifted kid and his equally troubled and bruised therapist.
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