Overview
As director Gus Van Sant observes in the introduction to Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's screenplay Good Will Hunting, the two young actors somewhat resemble the characters they play in the film: they're best friends, and Affleck (who plays Chuckie) habitually chauffeurs Damon (Will), who doesn't drive. Van Sant says we can see how badly Damon drives by watching the film's last scene, in which he is actually driving the car with the camera mounted on it. But Damon and company write better than he drives; this script contains some of the boldest, best monologues since Pulp Fiction.Van Sant and cast member Robin Williams helped the young actors tame the tigers in their cranial tanks, trimming the script into a precision instrument. Though the stills from the film are not perfectly matched to their places in the script, this story remains as much a joy to read as it is towatch on the big screen.Synopsis
There's no denying that a large part of this hit film's appeal is from the brilliant performances of Matt Damon as boy genius/street punk Will Hunting, and Robin Williams as the psychiatrist who manages to get through to him. But a good look at this intelligent screenplay, written by Damon and his co-star Ben Affleck, allows you to not miss a word of Will's razor-sharp monologues that have audiences across the country rolling in the aisles.
Will Hunting is a tough, working-class kid from South Boston. He's also a closet genius, more intelligent than the students he cleans up after at MIT. Dr. Lambeau is the MIT mathematics professor who "discovers" the brilliant janitor's potential. To help Will clean up his act Lambeau enlists the help of Sean McGuire, an eccentric therapist and fellow Irish-American from Southie. Will has finally met his match.