Good Will Hunting (1997)

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Starring and Written by: Matt Damon & Ben Affleck

It's a beautiful film set amidst settings that I really love. College, an outlier misfit student, intelligent professors, a wise therapist, unresolved traumas and a murky relationship. Perfect recipe for a coming-of-age film. Robin Williams is so beautiful, he has tons of depth in just his appearance. He could just say something, and you'd want to buy it. Will is not easy to describe using adjectives, but Will and Sean seem like a perfect duo to have life altering conversations. Will has the answers to everything, he's intelligent. Sean has been through life, he's wise. Will is scared to be hurt again and would do everything to avoid it. Sean has already gone through the biggest possible tragedy of his life and yet doesn't regret one bit of it.

Although the film explores a lot of interesting themes, the film didn't land on me as hard perhaps because I've seen a lot of derivative work of this. Finding what you want to do. Taking a plunge without fear. Unresolved trauma. Wisdom vs intelligence. All these ideas are interesting even now, but I can imagine how blazingly original they'd have been for when the film came out. And though Robin William's character seemed like a spin off of his character in Dead Poets Society, I could never get tired of watching characters like that. I love how the film takes us through this myriad of fights, debates, arguments and ends it on a note where we feel like Will is going to be okay, or in fact more than okay.