GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997) *****

Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgard, Minnie Driver, Casey

Affleck, Cole Hauser

Director: Gus Van Sant

Producer: Lawrence Bender

Screenplay: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck

I really love this film, it`s also my favourite one. The film is with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and it`s written by them, too. It`s a great, great film, although perhaps it seems to be an ordinary story told well! Taken as a whole, there`s little that`s special about this tale - it follows a traditional narrative path, leaves the audience with a warm, fuzzy feeling, and never really challenges or surprises us. But it`s intelligently written (with dialogue that is occasionally brilliant), strongly directed, ans nicely acted. So, while Good Will Hunting was unfortunately far from a late-year masterpiece, it was a worthwhile sample of entertainment.

This film is about the unlikely friendship that develops between a world-weary veteran and a cocky young man. Matt Damon`s Will Hunting is strong and inviolable, just Robin Williams` Sean Mc Guire can hurt him in a way by saying "You know all about the "sixtinische" chapel, how it`s looking, how it`s furnished, every centimetre, but you don`t know the smell of it, but I do!" Will coudn`t afford such jorneys, but he reads a lot about it.

Will is troubled individual. As a child, he was the frequent victim of abuse. An orphan, he was in and out of foster homes on a regular basis. Now, not yet 21 years old, he has become an impressive young man. He has a short temper and any little incident can set him off like a spark in a tinder box. But he`s a mathematical genius with a photographic memory and the ability to conceive simple solutions to complex problems. While working as a janitor at MIT, he delights in anonymously proving theorems on the math building`s hall blackboards. Then, one evening, his anonymity is shattered when Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) catches him at work. Will flees, but Lambeau tracks him down. Unfortunately, by the time the professor finds him, Will is in jail for assaulting a police offer.

The judge agrees to release Will under two conditions: that he spend one day a week meeting with Lambeau and that he spend one day a week meeting with a therapist. But first Will lays into every therapist until Sean Mc Guire, a teacher at Bunker Hill Community College and a friend of Lambeau, agrees to take the case. After a rocky start, the two form a rapport and Will begins to explore issues and emotions he had walled up behind impregnable armuor. And, as Will advances his self-awareness in sessions with Sean, he also learns about friendship from his buddy, Chuckie (Ben Affleck), and love from a Harvard co-ed named Skylar (Minnie Driver).

There are a lot of funny scenes like once Will quotes a passage and for that the right page just to show off (he do that all the time), or at the court he quotes a precedent of the 18^th century. My both favourite characters are of course Will Hunting and Sean Mc Guire, because they are very interesting! Although the story is fantastic, nevertheless I love it (who woudn`t like having a photographic memory?). I mean otherwise Robin Williams hadn`t got an Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for the Best Screenplay!