Blue-collar laborer is hero in smart 'Good Will Hunting'

By Rayya Makarim

JAKARTA (JP): "Most days I wish I never met you ... I wouldn't have to walk around with the knowledge that someone like you was out there, and I wouldn't have to watch you throw it all away," says a frustrated Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) to Will (Matt Damon) in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting.

For a professor of combinatorial mathematics at MIT and a Field's Medal-winner, it is tragic to be able to recognize true genius and yet fall short of it.

However, it is much worse when genius won't acknowledge itself.

Will Hunting is a math genius with a photographic memory who works as a janitor at MIT. In his spare time, he hangs out at local pubs with his friends, engages in fistfights and occasionally solves complex math theorems that leave Nobel Prize- winning professors baffled. Lambeau immediately embarks on a crusade to prepare the boy for bigger and better things.

Unfortunately, by the time Lambeau tracks him down, Will is in jail for attacking a police officer. The judge, however, agrees to Will's release if he meets with Lambeau and a therapist once a week.

After going through a number of psychologists, Lambeau finally asks an old friend, Sean McGuire (Robin Williams) to take the case. While Will establishes a relationship with Sean, he also learns about love from his Harvard girlfriend, Skylar (Minnie Driver), and friendship from his pal, Chuckie (Ben Affleck).

Although the movie's theme is perhaps predictable, the individual moments really make Good Will Hunting shine. The entire film is staged showing two people sitting in chairs across from each other, talking. Only the backgrounds and characters vary (usually only one of the characters change since Will is in virtually every scene). This may seem tedious, but the clever script written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck manages to captivate the audience throughout the entire 125-minute film.

The characters in this film are believable, and the complex human conflict, which is written with such precision, is real. Will lives his life avoiding challenges because he's been hurt before and doesn't want to get hurt again. An orphan and a victim of abuse, he feels secure in the company of his childhood friends who protect him physically and emotionally. He also sees nothing wrong in working a blue-collar job instead of making use of his talents. When he encounters Lambeau, Sean and Skylar, suddenly everybody wants something from him, whether it be a solid career, information about his past or love.

All at once, Will is confronted with "change", and this may jeopardize his already safe surroundings.

It is interesting how the script clearly distinguishes between the South Boston kids and the MIT students. Particularly in the beginning, where the scenes intercut between the uneducated, poor, lower-class laborers with a bleak future, to the privileged upper-class University students. Presenting the lower class as the hero and the upper class as the antihero emphasizes this contrast even more. This is especially apparent in characterization.

Lambeau is an MIT professor, while Sean decides to give up greatness to teach at Bunker Hill Community College. In a scene where Sean introduces Lambeau as a Field's Medal winner, he explains, "the Field's Medal is the Nobel prize for math. But it's only given out every four years." And yet, it is Sean who manages to get through to Will. Is it because they are both from the same neighborhood or is it because education is suspect, but "smarts" celebrated? Similarly, Will, the high school dropout finds Skylar's Harvard O-Chem lab easy. He also solves math problems at a bewildering speed, unlike Lambeau who must struggle.

Gus Van Sant (To Die For, My Own Private Idaho) draws genuine emotions from his actors. Robin Williams, in his Oscar-winning role, is exceptionally good and shows a range of emotions that allows Sean to appear confident, sad, funny and vulnerable, all at the same time. Damon, Driver and Affleck also show their best work (so far) in this film.

In essence, Good Will Hunting is an excellent film of how a boy's life edges toward self-destruction and how four people try to save him. Will has something that all the other characters in the story either want a part of or want to know more of. But Will doesn't see it that way.

In a touching scene, Chuckie finally makes it clear to his best friend: "Every day I come by to pick you up, and we go out drinkin' or whatever and we have a few laughs. But you know what the best part of my day is? The 10 seconds before I knock on the door, 'cause I let myself think I might get there, and you'd be gone."