Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is about “Will Hunting”, a genius math whiz, played by Matt Damon and how he overcomes his fear of abandonment and curbs his defence to move forward in life and how Sean, his shrink, played by Robin Williams, helps him in doing that. The actors enact their roles perfectly and I have to say that, perhaps this is the movie that gave Matt Damon a standing for what he is today!!

Working as a janitor in the prestigious college of MIT, Will solves a difficult problem that was posted on the college board for the students by the Math professor, field Medalist Gerald Lambeau , played by Stellan Skarsgard, as a challenge for his students to complete by the end of the semester. When the professor calls for a meeting to appreciate the student who solves the problem, he is surprised that no one claims for their hard work. He posts another problem that took his colleagues over two years to solve and he by chance spots a janitor writing something on that board. When he shoos away the janitor he was surprised to see that the problem was solved and thus begins his hunt for this janitor.

Will on the other hand, gets into trouble for beating a guy whom he suspects to have harassed him in kindergarten and kicks a cop who responded to the chaos. The judge refuses to let go of this incident considering the past charges on Will and Lambeau, who sees a potential in Will, decides to intervene on his behalf and cuts a deal with the judge: Either spend time in jail or study Mathematics under his supervision and accept therapy. Will chooses the latter and thus begins his journey of breaking into the self defence he built around himself to close down the memories of his abused childhood spent in foster homes and facing his inner demons for what he was not responsible.

Will is an arrogant, defensive, brilliant Math whiz whose intelligence borders genius, yet has trouble answering simple questions in life and trusting people. His defence is to shut out people before they could abandon him, so that he need not go through the pain of rejection. He messes up the sessions with the psychiatrists that Lambeau sets up for him through sheer arrogance and mistrust. Lambeau realizing that he needs someone who can break into him reaches out to his old class mate, Sean and requests him to help Will. In the first meeting between Sean and Will, Will makes a sarcastic comment about Sean’s wife and the painting hung in Sean’s room.
Sean threatens to kill Will if he ever said anything about his wife, ever again. After a much thought over Will’s words, Sean realizes that Will is just a kid and lets go of the incident.

This is the conversation between Sean and Will after that incident:

“If I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo? You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations. Him and the pope. Sexual orientation. The whole works, right? I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seeing that.
If I ask you about women, you'll probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman... and feel truly happy.
You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.
If I asked you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet, but you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes. Feeling like God put an angel on Earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping, sitting up in a hospital room... for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes... that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you.
You don't know about real loss, 'cause that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much.
I look at you. I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine. You ripped my fuckin' life apart.
You're an orphan, right? Do you think that I'd know the first thing about how hard your life has been - how you feel, who you are - because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't give a shit about all that, because - You know what? I can't learn anything from you... I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.”

The movie builds around the interaction and building up of trust between Will and Sean and how the life of Sean actually inspires Will to trust a person into his life. The conversation about how Sean misses the home run to spend a date with the girl whom he thinks would change his life forever marks a distinct impression on Will. When Will could not believe that Sean passed the ticket to watch home run for a girl and that he had not regretted not watching it, Sean comes up with a fantastic dialogue that actually speaks a lot about this movie.

“No, I'm not kidding you, Will. That's why I'm not talking right now about some girl I saw at a bar twenty years ago and how I always regretted not going over and talking to her. I don't regret the 18 years I was married to Nancy. I don't regret the six years I had to give up counselling when she got sick. And I don't regret the last years when she got really sick. And I sure as hell don't regret missing the damn game. That's regret.”

That was a very touching statement, which speaks about the character Sean and probably connects to Will at some level that inspires him to not let go of his girl, Skylar, whom he meets at a Harvard bar. But he blows off the relation when he gets all defensive about moving to California with her, when she asks if he would be willing to come to California to stay with her and give her love a chance to move into something more.

In a conversation with his best friend, Chuck, played by Ben Affleck, where Will speaks about his break up and his thought about staying up here forever, living next door to him and taking his kids to the Patriot games, Chuck speaks his mind about what he thinks of Will and how it would be an insult to him to see his life go for a waste in the construction sites. This speaks a lot more about the character Chuck and the relation he shares with Will. Up until that scene, Will’s friends are just a bunch of guys who hang around each other, who are willing to go to any length for their friend, but, the fact that Will is special and that they expect him to make something out of himself comes out clear in this conversation.

“Look - you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat; now, that's a fact. I'll fuckin' kill you.”

When Will questions him about what he meant by that,
“You got somethin' none of us have...”
“Oh, come on! What? Why is it always this? I mean, I fuckin' owe it to myself to do this or that. What if I don't want to?”
“Fuck you, you don't owe it to yourself man, you owe it to me. Cuz tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 50, and I'll still be doin' this shit. And that's all right. That's fine. I mean, you're sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket. And you're too much of a pussy to cash it in, and that's bullshit. 'Cause I'd do fuckin' anything to have what you got. So would any of these fuckin' guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in 20 years. Hangin' around here is a fuckin' waste of your time.

Every day I come by your house and I pick you up. And we go out. We have a few drinks, and a few laughs, and it's great. But you know what the best part of my day is? For about ten seconds, from when I pull up to the curb and when I get to your door, 'cause I think, maybe I'll get up there and I'll knock on the door and you won't be there. No goodbye. No see you later. No nothing. You just left. I don't know much, but I know that.”

The movie has a lot of touching scenes enacted beautifully, but one particular scene would have touched Will to show how much his friends care for him comes out when they all pool in to present him with a car on his 21st birthday. After much thought and self-realization, Will ends up taking Sean’s advice to follow his heart. the movie ends with a note to Sean from Will, saying that he shall be following his heart and sets out to California to begin a new life with his girl friend.

“I gotta see about a girl.”

The movie is as much about Will as is about every other person out there, who has something to fear. This movie connects a lot at several levels, in that it challenges one to embrace the chances life offers and not regret not taking that chance, for there might be something beautiful that awaits round that corner. Incidents happen in life that can leave scars on the person, but then, that is the way of life. But how one deals with those incidents is the crux of life too. It is about battling that inner demon that pulls one down and rising above the self blame when things get out of hand and change life topsy-turvy. The movie is about Will Hunting who faces these demons and accepts the chance that life offers him!

I like this movie and it remains an all time favourite.