As the Academy Awards draw near, the contenders for Best Picture are duking it out in newspapers nationwide. LA Confidential has recast itself as a breezy comedy, The Full Monty has been reissued to theatres just as it has become available on video, with a "who'da thunk it?" insouciance; Titanic, as the comfortable front-runner, is just continuing to run ads, and GOOD WILL HUNTING is touting its screenplay in a not-so-subtle dig at James Cameron.

For those who have been in a darkened theatre watching Titanic nonstop since December, GOOD WILL HUNTING represents the screenwriting debut of up-and-comers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who didn't like any of the screenplays presented to them, so they decided to write their own. It is the story of Will Hunting, a South Boston janitor and wastrel who works at M.I.T. -- and just happens to have a gift for mathematics…and a rap sheet as long as his arm. Solving a difficult proof while waxing the floor, he gains the attention of a math professor (Stellan Skarsgård), who takes the rootless lad under his wing as a condition of Will's release from his latest scuffle with police. Counseling is part of the release condition, and into this role walks Robin Williams, in his best earnest mode.

The acting is competent-to-great. Matt Damon, the OTHER "flavor-of-the-month" in the Hollywood teen-dreamstakes, is convincing in this starmaking turn as his creation. He has a great haircut and a lovely toothy movie-star smile. He conveys well the roiling angst lurking beneath this tough kid, and makes you believe in both the characters toughness and in the wounded child beneath. His writing partner, Ben Affleck, fares less well. Affleck has a weaselly quality, an unfortunate, though slight, facial resemblance to Adam Sandler, and a history with this reviewer of only the irredeemable O'Bannion in Richard Linklater's 1993 Dazed and Confused. It just doesn't ring true to me that he is sufficiently noble to really want his best friend to leave town and live up to his gifts.

Robin Williams, as therapist Sean McGuire, plays a more world-weary, cynical version of his teacher from Dead Poets Society. Looking far older than his years (a walking advertisement against the cocaine use of his younger days), Williams imbues his character with a history of grief, loss, and disappointment, a "no bullshit" therapeutic style, and a paternal warmth. Skarsgård gives one of those understated, underappreciated performances that helps bolster the flashier performances of Damon and Willians in his portrayal of the math professor who sees Will's gift.

Minnie Driver. Can someone please tell me why this actress has been nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as the surnameless Skylar instead of for her Debi Newberry in Grosse Pointe Blank? For one thing, she looks terrible in this movie. Her round-yet-angular face cries out for softer hair and clothing than she sports here. While it's understandable why she would be attracted to this toothy young man with his educated pontificating, it's never really clear why she loves him….until an excruciatingly painful scene in which it becomes horrifyingly obvious: it is archetypal "rescue fantasy": You Are The Tortured Young Man and I am The Noble Woman Who Will Help You. Any woman watching this film who doesn't cringe with recognition during this scene is in serious need of counseling.

Much has been made of this screenplay, and for the first twenty minutes of the film it is difficult to understand why. After all, anyone can write dialogue for characters for whom every third word is "F*ck". However, once Will is allowed to demonstrate his gift, this much-touted script truly shows its chops. One of the best scenes in the film occurs when in a confrontation with a condescending college grungemeister, he goes off on a discourse on early American economic activity in the South that firmly establishes the writing gifts of Messrs. Damon and Affleck. While the plot has a number of undeveloped areas (such as the obviously strained relationship between the two older men), the beautifully-written soliloquies more than make up for it. This film gives great rant.

GOOD WILL HUNTING is a very good film, and a worthy starting effort by its two young writers. It is funny in the right places, and touching in the right places. Matt Damon undoubtedly has a great future ahead of him. I would hate to see make these two young artists lapse into a "peaked too soon" complacency as a result of the many accolades being showered on this first script.

-- Jill Cozzi

Review text copyright © 1999 Jill Cozzi and Cozzi fan Tutti, © 2003 Mixed Reviews. All rights reserved. Reproduction of text in whole or in part in any form or in any medium without express written permission of Mixed Reviews or the author is prohibited.

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