When it comes to my favorite drama movies, 1997’s Good Will Hunting is easily in my top three of all time. It is crazy to me that this movie is the better part of 30 years old. I have watched it many times over the years and it is one of those movies that just does not seem to age. My son who is 16 watched this for the first time recently and he loved it, it is a movie that I think will be enjoyed for many more decades.
How to Download Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting was released on December 5, 1997. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you’re interested in movies with Matt Damon, check out our reviews of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean’s Eleven, The Bourne Identity, The Martian, or Oppenheimer.
The Movie Review
Celebrating the Creators
It is awesome how Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wrote this and Affleck’s buddy Kevin Smith helped get it into the right hands (or wrong hands by today’s standards). It is such a feel-good story about how these two young actors got this film off the ground. I am sure that both guys would have had a solid career, but you do have to wonder how different it would have been had Good Will Hunting never been made.
Plot and Setting
The movie is set in Boston and our main character is Will Hunting. Will is in his early 20s, has just gotten out of jail, and is working as a janitor at MIT. He is a genius and spends most of his time just hanging out drinking with his buddies, Chuckie (Ben Affleck), Morgan (Casey Affleck), and Billy (Cole Hauser) these four are as Boston as it gets and I actually love the Boston setting of this movie as it is a city I love.
Dynamic Relationships
There are two major parts to the movie. First of all, Professor Lambeau puts a very difficult math problem on the board and Will manages to solve it. Not knowing who solved it, the Professor puts another math problem on the board and catches Will solving it. Only, he thinks that Will is vandalizing it and chases after him. Will gets into trouble and gets arrested and Professor Lambeau arranges for Will to be released as long as he studies mathematics with him and sees a shrink.
The Therapy Sessions
One of my favorite parts of the movie is Will chasing away the shrinks as he feels he does not need therapy. However, Will meets his match in Dr. Sean Maguire, played by the ever-so-talented Robin Williams. Will tries to chase him off, but he refuses to go and the two build a great relationship that is amazing to see grow. You truly feel that by the end of it, Will sees Sean as a kind of father figure as he helps him through some deep-rooted trauma.
Romance and Personal Growth
Another part of Good Will Hunting is the love story! Will meets a pretty young Harvard student called Skylar (Minnie Driver) and the two of them hit it off. You can tell that Will really likes her, but due to the trauma of his past, he cannot get over himself and really struggles to be fully open with her. Matt Damon and Minnie Driver have amazing chemistry together and even to this day, this is my favorite role that Minnie Driver has ever done.
We follow Will on this journey and in many ways, it is a coming-of-age movie as Will starts to realize that he wants more from life. There is an amazing scene with Chuckie and Will where Chuckie says that the best part of his day is when he pulls up to Will’s place and he might have taken off and gone to do something better with his life. I am not describing the power of this scene well at all, but it is amazing stuff.
Another great scene is where Will and Sean start to bond over their shared trauma from when they were kids. At the time I first saw this I only really knew Robin Williams as the “funny guy” It was Good Will Hunting that made me realize what a talented dramatic actor this guy was. You truly believe everything that he says.
Conclusion and Impact
I know that I tend to give out 10/10 scores to more movies than most people, but I truly believe that Good Will Hunting is a spectacular movie and is as perfect as you can get. When the only complaint that I have is that there is no 4K of Good Will Hunting, you know that it is a movie I must really love. The Blu-Ray is fine, but a 4K restoration would be awesome. This is a movie that I never tire of, even though I have seen it at least 10 times, it gets to me each and every time I watch it.
