Good Will Hunting 1997

Matt Damon acts capably, and with some flair, as Will Hunting, the autodidact rebellious maths genius. He pokes fun at Harvard snobbiness in an inspired bar scene, "you dropped 150 grand on education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library". Of course, the 'one' woman and him come together (Minnie Driver), and they have a typically stormy relationship, where she marvels at his genius, and in the end he goes of to find her and tell her he loves her.








Professor Gerald Lambeau is a slimy maths professor at MIT "look it's saturday, unless you'd like to have a drink?" "...maybe", who recognises Will's one-of-a-generation mind and is very well played by Stellan Skarksgard. His tall frame, and blonde hair project his wealthy background and we see him looking like an 'old boy' at the MIT reunion, complete with red blazers and barbershop quartet, but his face is babyish, and excellent snarled through much of the film. Skarksgard's acting is the best in the film, notably in a scene where he is forced to accept, despite years of study, his inferiority to Will Hunting, a casual boy from the Bronx.



However, the film is largely focused around conversations between Damon and Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), a psychologist called in to monitor Will. A friend of mine remarked that the poster looks like an advert for pedastry - make up your own mind...Their powerplay arguments are very uninspired, and Maguire seems contrived and unrealistic. Will sees a painting of his, and brutally criticises it, then says "it seems like you're 2 days away from cutting off all your hair". He realises he's found Maguire's weak spot, and questions him about whether he married the wrong woman. In an over-the-top and cheesy scene, it's revealed that Maguire's wife died of cancer, and Robin Williams hugs much of the spotlight as we learn this. Professor Lambeau and Sean Maguire have an on-off relationship where they argue dramatically about the value of their lives, and who is intrinsically better. It all seems a bit silly, with at least 30 references to Lambeau's Field Medal (Maths Nobel Prize), and a passing mention of Vietnam veterans for no evident reason.

So, we have these three characters, Maguire, Hunting and Lambeau. Now, Lambeau is a great sinister character, but Damon falls far short of greatness playing Hunting, and you can feel William's arrogance oozing as he plays the bearded analyst, staring out his rain-dropped window, mulling over his life. Why make up all these characters? Ramanujan is mentioned, and Einstein's remarkable tale, the self-educated 26 year old who changed physics unimagineably, but Will Hunting has no historical base at all.


My other major contention is the portrayal of genius. Terence Tao, child prodigy, Olympiad Champion, PhD at 18, faculty at 21, is the living equivalent of Hunting. In his outstanding blog, he argues that one does not have to be a genius to excel in maths, or indeed any subject. Hunting's background is that he's an orphan, who spent all his time hiding in books in a public library, and is about mid-twenties. The Maths problem he solves is a second-year undergraduate problem, one that undergraduates are expected to routinely be able to solve, described here. A Beautiful Mind shows the sort of lives mathematicians lead considerably more accurately, and with less sop. It's not even a case of the 10,000 hours supposedly required to master a subject - Hunting's achievements are pretty pedestrian.

Overall, it's a good film, and I'm always thrilled to see any maths in anything, but don't for a moment consider something accurate or that will transform your life. ★★★