GOOD WILL HUNTING!

After agonizing over whether or not to post a film that signaled the end of Summer, I opted to hold off on conceding to the Official season we are in and refocus instead on a film that people either loved or hated. I happened to love it. So, I chose GOOD WILL HUNTING for our belated "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" selection.

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In 1997, I was midway through completing my college degree when I first caught this film one weekend (penned by actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck). The story revolves around Will Hunting (Damon) who posseses a genius level ability for solving mathematical theorems. His job as an MIT janitor belies a deeply troubled life as an abused foster child who consequently grows up sabotaging professional and emotional opportunities that come into his life as an adult. His bare bones existence in a poverty-ridden neighborhood in Boston begins to change after he solves a math challenge that he notices posted on a classroom blackboard. The math problem is left to a graduate class to ponder for an entire semester. The math Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) catches him solving the problem, but mistakens him for a vagrant and runs him off. After he has discovered the astonishing truth, Lambeau tracks down Hunting and manages (with great effort) to have him released to his custody from a criminal court following a violent altercation. Will accepts the challenge to study mathematics and begin regular therapy as a condition of avoiding hard time in jail, but is in denial that he needs therapy. After numerous psychologists come and go without helping Hunting, Lambeau reaches out to psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) and this doctor-patient relationship ranks among the richest character development scripts ever written for the silver screen, with plenty of tension. Robin Williams gives the performance of his career as a grieving widower who loses his wife-the love of his life--to illness, but encourages Will to try to establish a relationship with a woman whom he meets in a bar named Skylar (Minnie Driver).

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Many revelations are uncovered by Maguire and Hunting in the course of their therapy sessions that allows the audience a spyglass view on the subject of risking emotional pain in the course of choosing love. The choices we make in life becomes the focus of the film which takes a surprising turn. Okay...enough already!

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The Cast: Robin Williams as Dr. Sean Maguire; Matt Damon as Will Hunting; Ben Affleck as Chuckie Sulivan; Stellan Skarsgard is Professor Gerald Lambeau; Minnie Driver is Skylar; Casey Affleck is Morgan O'Mally and Cole Hauser is Billy McBride. Directed by Gus Van Sant; Written by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck. Oscar Winner: Robin Williams as Best Supporting Actor; Best Screenplay for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.