20-year-old malcontent Will Hunting sweeps floors at M.I.T. by day and cruises bars with his pals by night, and he has no qualms with his life. Though he seldom exhibits it, Will has an extraordinary gift with mathematics, as well as a photographic memory. Just for laughs, Will anonymously writes an answer to a complex mathematical equation posted by Professor Lambeau for his students. Lambeau, not to be outdone, continues to publicly post further, even more challenging problems, until finally he spots Will working on one of them while working his janitorial shift. Lambeau is both angry and amazed, but his attempt to speak to Will results in a rude and hasty exit. Later, Will is cruising through the streets of Boston with Chuckie and his other friends, and spots a playground bully who once beat him up in elementary school. Will takes this opportunity to even the score, and is arrested as a result. Though he cites a number of legal defenses at his hearing, Will is told that he's going to serve time for this particular bit of trouble - until Professor Lambeau shows up and convinces the judge to release Will into his custody. The judge agrees that Lambeau will help Will develop his mathematical gift - and he'll also see to it that Will receives counseling. Several of Lambeau's acquaintances in psychology discover the hard way that Will isn't going to allow anyone to help him without getting through some major psychological barriers. Finally, Lambeau convines former college classmate Sean McGuire to take on Will's counseling assignment. Though their first meeting isn't exactly pleasant, Will and McGuire quickly establish an understanding, if not a rapport, and McGuire continues trying to serve as the boy's therapist. In the meantime, Will is also falling in love with a girl from Harvard who is amazed by his mental capacity. In their own ways, and often at odds with one another, Will's friends and benefactors are trying to help him become more than he is - but if he follows that path, Will may become more than he wants to be.

Despite battling the all-time megahit Titanic for its share of theater screens, Good Will Hunting is my pick for the best movie of 1997, and its two Oscars - one for the screenplay by stars Damon and Affleck, the other a long-overdue supporting actor win for Robin Williams - were well-deserved. For my money, Good Will Hunting should have snapped up Best Picture as well, but that's a bone I'll pick with the Academy at a later date.

Good Will Hunting is a movie that should appeal to anyone who has ever felt like their life has slipped out of gear and stalled. While the movie dwells on a character with a talent for combinatorial mathematics, it doesn't spend too much time on the specifics of that talent, and keeps the emotional dynamics of the characters in center stage.

Robin Williams steals the entire show with his emotionally injured Sean McGuire, who really does need someone like Will to throw his own therapeutic curveballs right back at him. Though the movie is centered around Will, I have to admit that Matt Damon's often petulant performance, while perfectly fitting for the role, could have been given by any number of actors. Since the movie paints Will as a thick-skinned and occasionally violent character, and since Lambeau is portrayed as someone who could lead Will astray even with the best intentions, the movie relies on McGuire, Skylar, and perhaps Chuckie as sympathic points of identification for the audience. Robin Williams is always at his best when someone sets most of his dialogue in stone. Prior to Good Will Hunting, I considered Williams' best work to be Dead Poet's Society, a movie which gave him some parameters within which he could perform his famous brand of improvisation, but also demanded that he stick to his lines for most of his scenes. Conversely, Good Morning Vietnam also followed a script, but Williams' latitude to improvise within that character left the movie with an uneven feeling, and consequently many of the dramatic sequences seemed dull as opposed to his radio monologues. In Good Will Hunting, Williams was playing a carefully scripted and defined character, and though some of his livelier scenes had some of the hallmarks of his comedic genius, they were all in the script. A lesser performer, after years of soaking up praise for his work, might not have risen to this challenge the way Robin Williams did, and his Oscar is well-earned.

Though the movie was carefully scripted, the script itself was born from numerous improvisational discussions between its writers, and that lends itself to some brilliantly honest moments as well as some stilted moments which, while still obviously written (meaning they're almost too complex to be spur-of-the-moment outbursts, such as Will's brilliantly funny reasoning against taking a job with the NSA), are equally important to the story. But the movie is never short on emotional punch. In the theater, when I saw the scene where Will decides it's scarier to love Skylar and let her help him than it is to sink back into old habits, I called him an idiot. Out loud. Usually, if I say something out loud during a movie, it's the kind of outburst one might expect from Crow T. Robot, and seldom a gut reaction like that. (But then again, I think Minnie Driver is gorgeous and wonderful, and oh yeah, she's a really good actress too. So I would never have dumped Skylar. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.)

I highly recommend this movie. It's a good movie for a date, and even a good movie to just sit and contemplate. And unlike most of the movies I've reviewed here, I haven't had the benefit of watching Good Will Hunting time and time again on video - all of the above impact was drilled into me in just one viewing. That's a movie with a great deal of impact.

• screenplay by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
• directed by Gus Van Sant Jr.
• music by Danny Elfman
• Cast: Matt Damon (Will Hunting), Robin Williams (Sean McGuire), Ben Affleck (Chuckie Sullivan), Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Gerald Lambeau), Minnie Driver (Skylar), John Mighton (Tom), Rachel Majorowski), Colleen McCauley (Cathy), Casey Affleck (Morgan O'Mally), Cole Hauser (Billy McBride), Matt Mercier (Barbershop quartet #1), Ralph St. George (Barbershop quartet #2), Rob Lynds (Barbershop quartet #3), Dan Washington (Barbershop quartet #4), Alison Folland (M.I.T. student), Derrick Bridgeman (M.I.T. student), Vic Sahay (M.I.T. student), Shannon Egleson (Girl on street), Rob Lyons (Carmine Scarpaglia), Steven Kozlowski (Carmine's friend), Jennifer Deathe (Lydia), Scott William Winters (Clark), Philip Williams (Head custodian), Patrick O'Donnell (Assistant custodian), Kevin Rushton (Courtroom guard), Jimmy Flynn (Judge Malone), Joe Cannon (Prosecutor), Ann Matacunas (Court officer), George Plimpton (Psychologist), Francesco Clemente (Hypnotist), Jessica Morton (Bunker Hill student), Barna Moricz (Bunker Hill student), Libby Geller (Toy store cashier), Chas Lawther (M.I.T. professor), Richard Fitzpatrick (Bartender), Frank Nakashima (Executive #1), Chris Britton (Executive #2), David Eisner (Executive #3), Bruce Hunter (NSA agent), James Allodi (Security guard)