Good Will Hunting Review

1) Describe the Film

The film is about a trouble young man who works as a janitor at M.I.T.  He then gets involved with one of the teachers when Will, the protagonist, solvs a very difficult problem on a chalk board in a hallway. Professor Lambeau hunts down Will after catching him solving another one of his problems, and finds him in a jail cell, where he has been charged with assault, for a fight he had with a group of other locals.  The professor takes him out of jail and his rough life and teaches him, and brings him to multiple therapists, where, an old friend of Lambeau, who is also from the same rough neighborhood as Will, works with him.  Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, works with Will on his issues with other people and using his talented gift of solving mathematical equations that others could barely comprehend to get out of his violent neighborhood.

2) What did you notice about the writing in the film.

The writing was simple.  It was short lines, with little words.  The diction was simple, as it should be because some characters in the film were clearly uneducated after high school.  The cussing, in my opinion, is necessary.  Everyone cusses now and then, and not putting it in the movie, especially for people from Boston, is a crime.  It also adds another part of the "rough life" factor that Will has.

3) What was a favorite line from the film?  Why?

My favorite line is when Sean, Robin Williams' character, after being verbally ripped apart by Will the first time they met, gives it right back to Will, and shows his dominance over Will.  Showing Will his not unlike others, and the he himself, Sean, lived a very similar life as Will.

4) This film won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay).  Do you think it deserved this award? Why or Why not?

Yes, it deserved the award.  It's a great screenplay that accurately shows gifted youth with troubled lives.  Furthermore, it shows people who have had to live with not even a respectable father or mother.  And why people like Will, end up with people like Chuckie Sullivan, played by Ben Affleck, who is a friend of Will Hunting in the film.  It's also a different take on boy genius, done in an urban setting.