Good Will, Indeed

I've seen trailers for different movies that tout "Academy Award Winner Ben Affleck" or "Academy Award Winner Matt Damon" in the cast. Not to take anything away from their acting, but the implication here is basically a lie; these two actors won their Oscars for writing, on Good Will Hunting. This was another movie I was trying to accurately integrate into my Top 100, so I recently broke out my copy and watched it again. I found it even better than I remembered.

It's a worthy Oscar winner for writing. The storytelling is very taut, with lots of careful set-ups and pay-offs, excellent and visually-oriented exposition, distinct throughlines and motivations for all the major characters, and several uplifting points to make. Apparently, Rob Reiner and top-notch screen writer William Goldman both contributed some advice on the story, but all parties involved declare that the script ultimately is the work of Damon and Affleck. However they got there, their finished product was solid. And it's a real shame the two haven't teamed up since to write again.

But the script is bolstered even farther by solid acting. Affleck does great work as the crass comic relief, but then muscles in at the end with one dramatic scene that's a highlight of the movie. Minnie Driver is a love interest who feels like a real character; her relationship with Damon's character feels truer than Epic Movie Love, and she's likeable, smart, and funny. Stellan Skarsgård has the most workman-like role in the film, but still nails emotional clashes with Robin Williams' character, and conveys the anguish of The Most Brilliant Guy in the Room losing his title. Matt Damon manages to make mountains of technobabble play breezily, and keeps a character that could be conceited and deplorable firmly in the camp of relateable and sympathetic.

And then there's Robin Williams. He won an Oscar for this performance, and deservedly so. It would be easy to overlook his skill here and dismiss this performance as a shade of his work in Dead Poets' Society, but this role goes deeper. His character here has a recent personal tragedy, and Williams conveys many textures of grief (from depression to rage to being able to laugh) without ever becoming maudlin or false. It's also clear that by bringing his "A game," Matt Damon's performance was pulled up a level too; the two have a great interplay with one another in this movie, in scenes funny, aggressive, and sentimental.

The "unlikely genius" story has been told in film many times before, and many times since, but in my book, I don't know that it's been told better than in Good Will Hunting. I give the movie a solid A.