X
- 1997
- R
- Miramax Films
- 2 h 6 m
- 1997
- R
- Miramax Films
- 2 h 6 m
Summary Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a brilliant mathematician, but also an angry young man. To avoid jail time, he agrees to work with Sean (Robin Williams) a therapist who comes from the same tough Boston neighborhood.
Directed By: Gus Van Sant
Written By: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
- 1997
- R
- Miramax Films
- 2 h 6 m
- 1997
- R
- Miramax Films
- 2 h 6 m
Good Will Hunting
71
8.6
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Summary Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a brilliant mathematician, but also an angry young man. To avoid jail time, he agrees to work with Sean (Robin Williams) a therapist who comes from the same tough Boston neighborhood.
Directed By: Gus Van Sant
Written By: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
71
82% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
18% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
71
82% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
18% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
First and foremost, Good Will Hunting is a film riding young, exuberant energies.
The script's bare bones are familiar, yet the film also has fine acting, steady momentum, a sharp eye and a very warm heart.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 563 User Ratings
8.6
93% Positive
526 Ratings
526 Ratings
6% Mixed
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
1% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 563 User Ratings
8.6
93% Positive
526 Ratings
526 Ratings
6% Mixed
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
1% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Gus Van Sant, working from the tangy, well-written script, gets so much humor, grit and emotional truth out of this tale that the familiar formulas behind it simply fall away.
It's the individual moments, not the payoff, that make it so effective.
While the charismatic performances of Damon and Affleck make Good Will Hunting a difficult entertainment to resist, doing just that is not as hard as the film would like to think.
Hearts sinking, we are obliged to endure much pseudo-serious gabble as we head toward another painfully predictable triumph of the human spirit. There must be some better way of hunting our--and Oscar's--goodwill. [Dec. 1,1997]
Van Sant's direction is surprisingly static and conventional, which doesn't help this earnest, underwhelming misfire.
This movie is the only movie that deserves a ten. This movie has a big meaning, psychologist debunk this movie and, the character will is "acting" realistically. A defensive, abused both mentally, and physically born in a bad family, meets Sean to avoid jail time. The interaction between them is magnificent. Robin Williams is the best actor in the world.
Report
I've always found this movie a little bit overrated since it is an ordinary movie with an ordinary screenplay directed by a great director that here only manages to make his work without giving the passion he gave in his previous films. That's what I feel as a viewer.
Report
I recently had the opportunity to see Good Will Hunting for the second time. I had not seen it since its video release in 1997. It's funny how 15 years can change your opinion about a movie. I was lukewarm to the film back then, but now 15 years wiser I see it in a new light.
I had initially dismissed this film as a two hour study of a bunch of unlikeable and unbelievable people. But now it is evident that Matt Damon deserved his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character, the good Will Hunting.
Damon does a yeoman's job making us believe in someone who is not only a math genius with a photographic memory, but a barroom-brawler, cynic, janitor, lover, and all-around down-to-earth working-class Joe. Damon and his compadre Ben Affleck also deserved their Oscar screenplay win for creating a character more fantastic than any from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Robin Williams also deserved his Oscar win for having us buy his interpretation of an all-knowing beard-sporting eye-glinting joke-cracking-but-no-nonsense psychologist.
Affleck, director Gus Van Sant, and the rest of the cast merit mention as well for trying to get us to like and accept all the unappealing and implausible characters who populate this fantasy world.
All this leads me to believe that I should revisit films like Showgirls, The River Wild, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and The Greek Tycoon. Maybe I was a little too harsh in my initial assessment of these as well.
Report
Alright, I am going to go straight ahead and say that in no way do I understand how people manage to like this movie.
Absolutely everything in this film is outright terrible: the premise of two grown men going out of their way to help some guy "because he's a genius", the cliché boring love interest and friend subplots, young Damon showing his "intellect" by citing old books with a super-serious face, Affleck picking up girls (extra cringy!), Williams remembering his wife's farts (literally), Minnie Driver's story about geriatric blowjobs, Casey Affleck jerking off (not shown explicitly, thankfully), the battered "do what you really like, don't miss your true love" morale... The list could go on forever, or for about two hours, to be exact.
The only bright spot is Robin Williams (when he's not remembering his wife's farts, obviously), his performance is solid, his smile heart- warming, his wrists very hairy.
What I also don't get is why people have doubts whether Affleck and Damon actually wrote this piece of trash. I mean come on, saying that someone isn't capable of even coming up with something as bad as Will Hunting is probably the worst insult there is.
Report
Production Company
- Miramax
- Lawrence Bender Productions
- Be Gentlemen Limited Partnership
- A Band Apart
Release Date Dec 5, 1997
Duration 2 h 6 m
Rating R
Tagline Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone believes in them.
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Wins & 9 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
Awards Circuit Community Awards
• 2 Wins & 9 Nominations