Good Will Hunting

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a man with phenomenal innate abilities, allowing him to make discoveries in the latest areas of mathematics , and an excellent eidetic memory, with the help of which he easily manages to accumulate encyclopedic knowledge. But the bearer of these talents does not attach much importance to them: for example, he works as a simple cleaner at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and lives alone in a sparsely furnished house in the seedy neighborhoods of the southern region of Boston . As a guy who has not received a good upbringing, he subconsciously blames himself for his dysfunctional start in life and turns this hidden self-hatred into a form of self-sabotage both in his professional field and emotionally.

When students start their studies at the institute, already in the first week of the semester, Will in passing solves the difficult problem of a graduate level related to the field of algebraic graph theory : it so happened that this task was left in the lobby on the chalkboard as a challenge to his students, Professor Gerald Lambo ( Stellan Skarsgård), winner of the Fields Prize , an outstanding connoisseur of combinatorics , hoping that one of the students could find a solution by the end of the semester. When the decision was promptly and anonymously indicated, Lambo announces a much more difficult task - one that took him and his colleagues over two years to solve. When Lambo accidentally comes across a simple cleaner writing chalk on this board, he chases him out in indignation. But when Lambo returns to the board, he freezes in amazement: the correct answer is written on the board. Then the professor intends to find Will at all costs.

Meanwhile, Will manages to take revenge on a hooligan guy named Carmine Scarpalia, who, as I recall, Will, constantly beat him in kindergarten. In the course of the fight, Will also gets the policeman, and now Will faces imprisonment. Fully aware of Will’s huge potential, Lambo goes to court and gives Will the opportunity to avoid the conclusion as follows: the professor offers Will to work with him under two conditions: under the personal supervision of Lambo, he will now study the areas of mathematics that the professor will point out, and this is the second condition is that he will attend psychotherapy sessions once a week. Although Will does not consider himself in need of the help of a therapist, he accepts the conditions of a professor to avoid prison.

The first five psychologists Professor Lambo gave him were forced to abandon their activities, as Will scoffed at them in every way and treated them with undisguised contempt. In desperation, Lambo finally turns to his old friend and classmate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), who, it turns out, grew up in about the same area as Will. Sean differs from his fellow psychologists in that he repulses Will and, ultimately, is able to expose his sarcastic hostile defense mechanisms . Will is particularly struck by Sean's story about how he neglected his ticket to the famous 6th game of the Red Sox team of the World Championship in 1975 to meet and sit in a bar with a stranger who later became his wife. This story prompts Will to try to establish a closer relationship with Skylar ( Minnie Driver ), a young English woman whom he had met at a bar near Harvard University and who clearly sympathized with him.

However, the “doctor-patient” relationship between Sean and Will turned out to be painful for the doctor himself, and thus went beyond the framework of the “one-goal game”: Will’s sharp mind and observation make him do difficult internal work to develop an objective look at your own life. Prior to this meeting with Will, Sean could not cope with the sorrow and depression associated with the premature death of his beloved wife two years earlier as a result of cancer.

Meanwhile, Lambo is so persistently pushing Will to cooperate that Will ultimately refuses to go for a job interview, which Lambo suits him. Will enters the room by chance while Lambo and Sean argue passionately about the future of the ward.

Skylar is going to study at the Medical School Stanford University and in this regard, asks Will to go with her to California . At the thought of leaving, Will begins to panic. When Skylar expresses his final sympathy for Will, including accepting him wholly as he is, including his real past (and not the one he tried to invent for her sake to look better), then hysteria begins with Will, and he runs out of the hostel in a rage. He also breaks with the work that he had previously done for Lambo as a "joke." Lambo asks Will not to destroy his labors, but Will leaves.

Sean discovers that Will is so adept at preventing future failures in his interpersonal relationships, so capable of calculating them that he either allows them to be nullified, or deliberately evades them, thus avoiding the risk of emotional pain. When Will refuses to give him an honest answer to the question of what he wants to do next with his life, Sean shows him the door. Will admits to his best friend Chucky ( Ben Affleck ) that he wants to be a laborer for the rest of his life. But Chucky is outraged at how his friend manages his talent: he accuses Will of going to waste all his potential. Chucky says his biggest dream is to knock on Will’s door one morning and discover that he’s not there.

Will comes again to a psychotherapy session, and here he and Sean discover that both were once victims of childhood abuse. In the end, after a lot of hard work getting into self-reflection , Will decides to stop being a victim of his own inner demons and take full responsibility for his life in his own hands, whatever this life may be.

In the finale, Chucky, as usual, enters Will on the way to work, but he is not there. He, leaving a notice to Sean, goes to California to Skylar.

• Matt Damon - Will Hunting
• Robin Williams - Sean Maguire
• Stellan Skarsgård - Gerald Lambo
• Ben Affleck - Chucky Sullivan
• Minnie Driver - Skylar
• Casey Affleck - Morgan O'Maley
• Cole Hauser - Billy McBride
• John Mighton - Tom

Rewards

• 1998 - Oscar Award
  • Best Supporting Actor - Robin Williams
  • Best Original Screenplay - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
• 1998 - Berlin Film Festival
  • Silver Bear for Outstanding Sole Contribution - Matt Damon
• 1998 - European Film Awards
  • Outstanding European Contribution to World Cinema - Stellan Skarsgård
• 1998 - Golden Globe Award
  • Feature Film Script - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
• 1997 - National Board of Review Award
  • A special contribution to the cinema - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck

Nominations

• 1998 - Oscar Award
  • Best Movie of the Year - Lawrence Bender
  • Best Actor - Matt Damon
  • Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Minnie Driver
  • Best Director - Gus Van Saint
  • Best Song - Elliott Smith (for the song "Miss Misery" )
  • Best Music - Danny Elfman
  • Best Editing - Pietro Scalia
• 1998 - Berlin Film Festival
  • The Golden Bear - Gus Van Saint
• 1998 - The Golden Globe
  • Best movie (drama)
  • Best Drama Actor - Matt Damon
  • Best Supporting Actor - Robin Williams
• 1998 - Directors Guild of America Award
  • Outstanding Director Contribution - Gus Van Saint
• 1998 - Screenwriters Guild of America Award
  • Best Original Screenplay - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck

• Good Will Hunting on the Internet Movie Database
• Good Will Hunting on allmovie