♥♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year
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| Warm autumn colors and a wonderful still of stars Matt Damon and Robin Williams make up this classic poster for Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting |
Will Hunting of South Boston cleans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in secret solves mathematical problems on a blackboard in a hallway, while he in his spare time gets into some trouble with the law.
Good Will Hunting is written by co-writer/co-star Ben Affleck (Live by Night (2016)) and co-writer/co-star Matt Damon (Promised Land (2012)) and directed by Kentuckian master filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche (1986)), whose 6th feature it is.
Damon convinces in the title part as the simultaneously incredibly smart and incredibly dumb Will Hunting. Robin Williams (The Night Listener (2006)) is formidable as the psychology doctor who begins seeing Hunting as a patient, and there is also impeccable supporting performances from Stellan Skarsgård (Hope (2019)), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Twelve (2004)), the other Affleck and Minnie Driver (Goats (2012)).
Good Will Hunting is a handsomely shot (by Jean-Yves Escoffier (Gummo (1997))), superiorly directed drama with a lot of fun lines and stories in it; it is fresh, exceedingly well-written and structured to a T. It may be said to stretch some of the relationships depicted, in particular the patient-psychologist relationship, but then Hunting is a obviously a very special case, and so it is entirely forgivable. It never compromises the film, which has an excellent beginning and just goes on being excellent.
Good Will Hunting is a marvelous motion picture, awe-inspiring and full of heart and brains.
Related posts:
Gus Van Sant: Promised Land (2012) or, Let's Get Your Small Town A-fracka-lackin'!
1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Elephant (2003) - Van Sant's masterpiece about an unbearable crime
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 10-16 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 225.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 14.11-22.59 times its cost)
[Good Will Hunting premiered 2 December (California) and runs 126 minutes. Damon began writing the script in his playwriting class at Harvard University. He wrote the complete script with Affleck, and they sold it for 675k $ to Castle Rock Entertainment, where president Rob Reiner asked them to remove its thriller aspect. Castle Rock was not interested in production with the two writers as stars, and they got 30 days to find another buyer, which became Miramax, where Harvey Weinstein stepped up to buy the project. Damon was paid 650k $, Affleck 300k $; Williams' participation was the film's scoop; he took a drastically reduced salary (reports say anywhere between 1.5-5 mil. $) but profit participation means he eventually landed an undisclosed, much bigger payday from the film. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in Massachusetts, including Boston, and in Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #13 to a 272k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2, staying in the top 5 for another 8 weeks, grossing 138.4 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Williams). It lost Best Actor (Damon) to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, Supporting Actress (Driver) to Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, Director to James Cameron for Titanic, Editing to Titanic, Score (Danny Elfman) to James Horner for Titanic, Original Song (Elliott Smith's Miss Misery) to Cèline Dion's My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, and Picture also to Titanic. It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations, the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, a European Film award and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches lower than this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #87 on the site's Top 250, between Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Like Stars on Earth/Taare Zameen Par (2007). Van Sant returned with Hanson: Weird (1998, music video) and theatrically with Psycho (1998). Williams returned in Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin (1998, video game) and theatrically in What Dreams May Come (1998); and Damon in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Good Will Hunting is certified fresh at 98 % with a 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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