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Good Will Hunting - Collector's Edition Customer Reviews (64 - 65 of 65 Reviews)

The single best movie I've ever seen
Ok, I have never ever written a review before, but I feel that this movie deserves a ridiculous amount of praise. First off, this is easily my favorite script which is important since I'm a screenwriter. Ben Afleck and Matt Damon deserved their Oscar. The acting is incredible on all parts, not one line is delivered poorly. The direction is great on Gus Van Sant's part, and the setting of the film is perfect. I love Boston...even south Boston. And the score by Danny Elfman is spectacular as always.
Now, with that said, this film is a film every one should see. It's not one where you can simply describe what its about. It's just has too many themes. I absolutely love this film, no matter what any one says. It really is in my mind the best ever made.

Please note: I hate it when people build up a movie so much that when you watch it, it's not what you expected and you're let down, so watch this movie with no expectations. Please form your own opinion. Just know, that in my mind, this is the best movie ever.

Why are you still so ..... afraid of failure?
First things first - this must be one of the greatest movies in recent Hollywood history. Like all truly great movies, this one is built multi-dimensionally, with an intelligent large-scale development (global movie structure, several parallel stories between main characters, excellent dialogs in major scenes), while at the same time realizing that beauty lies in the detail (shading of supporting characters and interactions between them, witty dialogs in 'smaller' scenes which are not directly related to the main plot, music which beautifully underlines the plot and the characters). With respect to supporting roles, I can only think of one other movie where they are portrayed with more texture and depth, Heat by M. Mann. In Good Will Hunting there are several different, but connected plots developing at the same time on multiple levels, and it feels like every single one of those plots could make a solid movie on its own. On the highest level there are relationships between Will and his girlfriend, between Will and his best buddy, and Will and his tutor No. 1 (Sean). Then, on the next lower level, we have parallel stories between Will and his tutor No. 2 (Math Prof Gerald), and between Sean and Gerald (actually this one is my favorite sub-plot in the whole movie). Going even further down, you can find small pearls, for example those beautiful sketch roles of Will's two other buddies, Billy and Morgan, or the stereotypical pairing of extrovert math professor with his introvert Russian assistant.

What I absolutely love about this movie are the dialogs. There are some heavy artillery dialog scenes: Sean telling Will he doesn't know a first thing about his life as an orphan just because he read Oliver Twist, Sean telling Will it's not about his girlfriend being perfect or him being perfect but it's about being perfect for each other, Skylar asking Will why is he afraid to come with her to California, Chuckie telling Will 'you don't owe it to yourself - you owe it to me', Sean asking Gerald why he's still so f...g afraid of failure, Sean telling Will it's not his fault... And then there are those beautiful 'side-dish' dialogs: Prof. Gerald trying to find Will in the workshop and talking to those two men who basically tell him to piss off, funny 'pickled' kiss between Will and Skylar on their first date, Gerald asking Sean to become a counselor for Will and Sean replying with 'How many shrinks did you go to before me? Barry? Henry? Not Rick!'

For lot of people the story is not realistic enough (kid with mind of a genius, knowing everything about everything) and/or too stereotypical (poor kid making it big by listening to his heart). All I can say is: a) the story is not trying to be very realistic, it is also symbolic and abstract, and b) every novel, poem, movie or song in the last five thousand years is basically about same things: love and money. But we still like them because the same old story is (almost) always presented in a different way, there's always a new angle. I mean, the story is ancient, so it's not so much about what the story is about, it's much more about how the story is told. And this story is told in a way that every young person out there, no matter how intelligent or how talented he or she might be, can get inspired to go Good Will Hunting!

As I already said - this is a very, very good movie. But it's not 100 percent perfect. And that's a good thing. There's a line near the end of the movie, when Sean is telling Will his counseling is finished and asks him if he would like to see his file. Will asks Sean if he's had any personal experience with child abuse and Sean replies 'yes, my father was an alcoholic, mean f...g drunk.' I think that's a bit too much, I mean, it makes Sean a perfect counselor (his wife dying of cancer, holding his dying friend in Vietnam, smelling the paint in the Sistine Chapel, etc). That's the only real misperfection I can find in the movie... and that makes it perfect. Look at us, we're all imperfect, we all have our own little peccadilloes. And that's exactly why we're perfect for each other. And that's probably why this movie is perfect for myself.

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