Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Good Will Hunting (1997)

This film was rather overwhelming to me. I didn’t know quite how to take it. I previously had some familiarity with Gus Van Sant and I knew it got some national recognition through the Academy Awards. Being the auteurist I am, I expected a Van Sant work I had seen before like his later films - Elephant, Gerry, and Paranoid Park. This made me rather skeptical at times and left me expecting something that I was not getting. Once I put this preconception aside, I found this to be a deep and profound film, not that other Van Sant works are shallow and superficial, because surely they are not. There were some very potent scenes. One that particularly stands out to me is Williams’ lengthy monologue in the park which is full of realization and vindication. The scripting of Damon and Affleck is full of intelligent ideas, powerful dialogue, and deep characters which converge to form an intellectual film about self-realization and abandonment. Although it was easily predictable, Good Will Hunting had a compelling impact on me.

9.5/10 - steven

4 comments:

Ian said...

this all may be true, but surely you can see that ben affleck and matt damon are two of the most over-rated and poorly talented actors currently making millions of millions of dollars playing any role given to them, which is usually a cookie-cutter romantic comedy, bio-pic shit peice, or mundane action adventure film. perhaps this shouldn't be included in a crtique of the film, but honestly, how can you watch a movie with either of these actors and even think it might have some artistic merit. i could be wrong, and if anyones feels so, please let me know. with that said, "stuck on you" is one of my all time favorite guilty pleasures.

steven said...

I can see where what you are saying is coming from, but knowing that they both co-wrote this script should take away that bias. These parts were not handed to them. My artistic merit came from Gus Van Sant's label on this film.

Ian said...

you're right. gus van sant commands much artistic respect. and i realize those two dummies do write. didnt they start some dumb production company called project greenlight?

steven said...

that was news to me, but, yeah, looks like they have some silly company.