I’m sure you’ll pardon me if I say I’m going through something of a Robin Williams moment these days.

It wasn’t that long ago that I watched and reviewed Good Morning Vietnam. And since then, the hits have just kept coming. I’ve watched the HBO documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, which is a two hour look at the actor and comedian’s life all the way up through his utterly tragic passing. Then I sought out the criminally forgotten Christopher Nolan film Insomnia. And along the way, my wife noticed I had Good Will Hunting on my watchlist and decided we needed to correct my never having seen that.

Do you have any movies that it FEELS like you’ve seen them, but when you watch them you figure you definitely had not? Or maybe you had only seen chunks? That was Good Will Hunting for me. I was not entirely sure I had ever watched it before, but I knew I would recognize a moment or two. Turns out that upon watching it, there was a lot I did not know about this flick. So it was a solid first time watch for me here. Can’t beat that. And now I get to do a Blast From The Past review on it!

Good Will Hunting is about a young college-aged man named, wait for this, Will Hunting. He works as a janitor at M.I.T. as part of a probationary work kind of program. He spends his days with his construction worker buddies going out to drink and trying to pick up ladies. The cinematic twist here, however, is that Will is a well-read wunderkind whose mind immediately grasps complicated mathematical concepts.

While at work one night, he solves an equation left on the chalkboard by a professor, and it’s not long until he is outed as the person behind it. The professor direly wants to work with his young man, so after a brawl lands Will in the slammer, Professor Lambeau bails Will out on the promise he would keep an eye on him.

This also means that Will has to start seeing a therapist. Enter (eventually): Robin Williams as Sean, Lambeau’s old college roommate, who may be the only person capable of reaching behind Will’s harsh exterior.

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Great performances all around, from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck through Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgard. They wholeheartedly sell the story and put themselves into their roles. It’s especially nice seeing such a subdued take on a character from Williams who was only two or three years removed from more bombastic pieces like Mrs Doubtfire and The Birdcage. He had long shown a proclivity for “serious” acting and roles here, but they were never his bread and butter until this Academy Award winning turn.

The moment of the movie may actually be Affleck’s, though. While he spends the majority of the movie being Will’s partner in crime and doesn’t seem wildly deep, he has a rant at Will about how Will’s wasting of his own talents is an insult to all of his friends. His speech about the best part of his day is really powerful and showed that Ben had the touch for strong performances.

Skarsgard and Williams have underrated chemistry, too. They are friends, but there is an undercurrent of resentment that occasionally boils over the top between them. They respect each other, but they also totally disagree on the best way to work with Will. The movie isn’t called Good Sean And Lambeau, though, so we don’t get loads of them as a pairing, but what we get is wonderful.

+ Good Will Hunting is flush with memorable lines and moments, the kind that stick in the zeitgeist and become a part of pop culture. It’s got very well written dialogue and mostly good characterization (more on that in a second). But yeah there are living, breathing MOMENTS in this. “How ’bout them apples?”, Affleck’s speech I already mentioned, “It’s not your fault”. All the credit in the world to Affleck and Damon for writing such a damned good script.

– Minnie Driver really gets the shaft on characterization as Skylar, as this is really a boys’ night out and she is just kind of a piece of the puzzle. Everyone gets more to do than she does, and ultimately it leaves her feeling much less well-rounded. She is stereotypical and soulless, but it’s not Driver’s fault. She really does the best she can, and she injects as much life as possible into this empty vessel. It’s all the screenplay continually letting her down, however. 

Skylar is less of a fully-realized human being than she is just another part of Will’s life, revolving around him. She pines for him and adores him no matter how he treats her, and she is ultimately just some thing that Will has to accept into his life. She is not a fulfilling character at all, and that’s a shame given how well everyone else is written.

– After having seen the Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back movie a dozen times, I assumed the bar rival character–the “How ’bout them apples” guy–was a bigger deal than he ends up being. What a shame. Also: a down for not having ever made Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season!

OVERALL

In the immortal words of Robin Williams as Sean: “That’s the good stuff”. Good Will Hunting is a treasure of a movie. It’s funny and moving and so well acted. It’s so easy to see how it got so many awards and nominations. You could argue that almost everyone involved gives their career best performance. This is such an easy and enjoyable watch, and it’s got so many scenes and lines that just hang with you long after the film is over.