Good Will Hunting (1997)
Country: US
Technical: col 126m
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård
Synopsis:
A recidivist bum from South Boston working as a cleaner at MIT gets himself noticed by a professor of Mathematics when he solves a problem on the corridor noticeboard. After getting into further hot water with the law he avoids a custodial sentence on the double condition that he do 'math' with the professor and therapy with a 'shrink'; neither quite reckons on his arrogance or aloofness.
Review:
Difficulties of synopsizing do not necessarily spell profundity and this film is far too long not to know what it's about, aside from the self-aggrandizement of its authors (it worked: they got an Oscar). Besides a classic shrink-patient relationship we have the story of a prodigious intelligence, but since the mathematical feats are of necessity so far beyond the average viewer we are allowed little appreciation of this (unlike the toothpick scene in Rain Man, say). Then there is the frustrating love story and the moral about using a gift and not throwing it away. So much, it's not surprising the screenwriter-stars got carried away with their ideas; an impressive debut but not an impressive movie.
Country: US
Technical: col 126m
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård
Synopsis:
A recidivist bum from South Boston working as a cleaner at MIT gets himself noticed by a professor of Mathematics when he solves a problem on the corridor noticeboard. After getting into further hot water with the law he avoids a custodial sentence on the double condition that he do 'math' with the professor and therapy with a 'shrink'; neither quite reckons on his arrogance or aloofness.
Review:
Difficulties of synopsizing do not necessarily spell profundity and this film is far too long not to know what it's about, aside from the self-aggrandizement of its authors (it worked: they got an Oscar). Besides a classic shrink-patient relationship we have the story of a prodigious intelligence, but since the mathematical feats are of necessity so far beyond the average viewer we are allowed little appreciation of this (unlike the toothpick scene in Rain Man, say). Then there is the frustrating love story and the moral about using a gift and not throwing it away. So much, it's not surprising the screenwriter-stars got carried away with their ideas; an impressive debut but not an impressive movie.
Country: US
Technical: col 126m
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård
Synopsis:
A recidivist bum from South Boston working as a cleaner at MIT gets himself noticed by a professor of Mathematics when he solves a problem on the corridor noticeboard. After getting into further hot water with the law he avoids a custodial sentence on the double condition that he do 'math' with the professor and therapy with a 'shrink'; neither quite reckons on his arrogance or aloofness.
Review:
Difficulties of synopsizing do not necessarily spell profundity and this film is far too long not to know what it's about, aside from the self-aggrandizement of its authors (it worked: they got an Oscar). Besides a classic shrink-patient relationship we have the story of a prodigious intelligence, but since the mathematical feats are of necessity so far beyond the average viewer we are allowed little appreciation of this (unlike the toothpick scene in Rain Man, say). Then there is the frustrating love story and the moral about using a gift and not throwing it away. So much, it's not surprising the screenwriter-stars got carried away with their ideas; an impressive debut but not an impressive movie.