The entertainment press has been somewhat obsessed with the stories of Damon and Affleck writing the screenplay, probably because most people assume that actors are usually about as sharp as bowling balls. The two young men have already won the screenwriting Golden Globe and are shoo-ins to be nominated for the Oscar. Now while I will admit to being impressed by the fact that these two unemployed (at the time) actors had the moxie to write a screenplay and shop it around until it found financing and an A-list director, I am less impressed with the actual results.
I am ambivalent about the screenplay. It does feature great dialogue (the result of long improvisations) and some realistic views of working-class life, but on the other hand, the portrait the film paints of the main character, played by Damon, could be mistaken for an incredible ego trip. Will Hunting (Damon) is a regular guy from South Boston who is rough, tough, and super-intelligent. Everybody wants him, from his Harvard girlfriend (Minnie Driver), to an MIT instructor (Stellan Skarsgard) to a troubled psychotherapist (Robin Williams). While the self-aggrandizement never reaches the level of Kevin Costner's films, it does get to be more than a little annoying.
The message the film attempts to get across is "don't be afraid of either failure or success." A noble sentiment, as there are doubtlessly millions who are racked with regret for not seizing the day. Still, here as in countless other films, the idea of "success" is equated with financial well-being and praise of the world. Luckily, the film does not portray Will's redemption as coming totally from his accepting a high-paying job: it is only his quest at the very end which truly saves Will from past misdeeds.
At the film's start, Will is on probation for his various violent acts, working as a janitor at MIT. There, he comes to the attention of Professor Lambeau (Skarsgard) who sees him solving an incredibly difficult equation on a hallway chalkboard. Normally, Hunting would laugh off any offers given him from a collegiate figure like Lambeau. Since, however, he is in danger of returning to jail for assaulting an officer, he agrees to both work for the academian and to go visit a therapist.
Hunting, however, mocks the therapists, tearing them apart (in one memorable scene, he pretends to be reliving a past experience of child abuse under hypnosis, and ends up singing "Afternoon Delight"). Finally, Lambeau brings him to his old roommate Sean McGuire (Williams), who is recovering from his own past losses. McGuire impresses Hunting more for his willingness to confront him directly than for his psychological abilities, and the two continue to meet.
Hunting's situation comes to a head as he is constantly pushed: Lambeau wants him to expand his mathematical genius, his best friend (Affleck) wants him to look for a better career, Skylar wants him to go away with her to California, and McGuire wants him to commit to something, anything.
The film's theme is serious and deep, handled in a trite fashion, but with serious and deep trappings. In the final analysis, the screenplay is simply an immature and inconsistent one: further efforts are sure to result in even better films (not that this one is bad: on the contrary).
Damon is just fine in the lead, perhaps a better actor than a writer. He convinces more as a working-class brawler than a closet supergenius. Williams is uncharacteristically ungoofy as the therapist, but does not stand out: as big of a star that he is, he's just not that interesting an actor. Stellan Skarsgard seems to be taking all the roles that Liam Neeson had before Schindler's List: he represents the not uncaring establishment perfectly. Best of the cast is Minnie Driver as Skylar. Too often, intelligent people are presented as insensitive humorless jerks: Driver goes against that stereotype here as a delightful young lady, convincingly in love with Will. The atmospheric score is by Danny Elfman, but is not characteristic of his work. I believe it might be the best film score he has yet composed.
Gus Van Sant returns to the cold northern milieu he filmed so memorably in To Die For, but here he has considerably more compassion for the characters. This is not, as so many have chimed in, one of the best movies of the year, but it does portend well for the future projects of almost all those involved. I'd love to see what they do next.
Three stars
Copyright 1998 by Dale G. Abersold
