Matt Damon is an extremely talented actor. I loved him in John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I never got around to see Matt's Good Will Hunting until recently. I was told that it was good and has received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. I never knew that the film was really that good.
Will Hunting (Damon) is a Southie, a roughshod Boston guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He works as a janitor at MIT, one step ahead of jail. He solves mathematical problems that no one else can. He also hangs out with his buddies and gets into trouble all of the time. The latest trouble will land him in jail till he's twenty-one.
Enter MIT professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard). The prof sees the potential that Will has. He gets the court to assign Will over to him on the condition that Will gets counseling. As Will goes through various sessions with therapists, he continually jerks them around. George Plimpton gets in a cameo as a psychiatrist that Will shines on.
Finally, Lambeau takes Will to his old college buddy Sean McGuire (Robin Williams). It seems that Sean is a therapist who won't conform to the normal standards .He also lost his wife to cancer and he is basically hiding from life. And as a kicker, Sean also was a Southie.
Sean gets Will to talk a little about his life and what got him to where he is now. But not without a lot of water under the bridge first.
Will also picks up a girlfriend along the way. Skylar (Minnie Driver) is from England and is finishing up her studies in Boston. She really gets drawn into Will's life. Skylar sees the potential that Will has, even if he can't.
Lambeau sees Will for everything that he could become and that the professor never accomplished. He sets up interviews for Will with companies that want to hire him for his genius. Will keeps blowing off the interviews even sending his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck) in his place for one of them.
The acting here is top-notch. I can see why Robin Williams won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film. Damon and Affleck wrote the Award winning screenplay.
For a great film about a guy rising above his circumstances, Good Will Hunting is one to watch.