Good Will Hunting (Miramax Collector's Series)

A true motion picture phenomenon, this triumphant story was nominated for 9 Academy Awards(R) -- winning Oscars for Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor) and hot newcomers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (Best Original Screenplay). With acclaimed performances from Academy Award(R)-nominee Minnie Driver (GROSSE POINTE BLANK) and Ben Affleck (ARMAGEDDON) -- you'll find GOOD WILL HUNTING a powerful and unforgettable movie experience! After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor (Williams), who might be the only man who can reach him! The most brilliant mind at America's top university isn't a student ... Will Hunting (Damon) is a headstrong, working-class genius who's failing the lessons of life. he's the kid who cleans the floors!

While working as a university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). The unconventional director (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy) saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast (amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Both doctor and patient are haunted by the past, and as mutual respect develops, the healing process begins. --Dave McCoy Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. Van Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for women's melodrama in the '30s and '40s: He's crafted an intelligent, unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find inner-wisdom.

Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet math genius who ignores his gift in favor of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but with small, quiet moments. Damon only avoids prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's former childhood friend, played by Williams. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward ways men show affection and feeling for one another.

--Rochelle O'Gorman Youthful stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck earned an Academy Award for their incisive, witty script. Good thing, because this is one involving and well-acted tale. (Williams garnered an Academy Award for his heartfelt performance.) Director Gus Van Sant put away his more invasive camera tricks and let the story tell itself. Salivating professors bring the angry and troubled young man to psychiatrist Robin Williams, hoping Damon will conform enough to further his education. Friendship, societal expectations, and the long reach of a damaged childhood are all portrayed with such finesse that the story never feels heavy-handed. Extraordinarily optimistic, Good Will Hunting is exceptional because it causes elation and forces you to think. Damon plays a janitor at MIT who is an enormously gifted mathematician. Several plot tangents, including a sweet little romance between Damon and Minnie Driver, are carefully woven into the fabric of this multilayered drama. One of the best films of the 1990s, this is one of those rare box office mega-hits that deserved all the adulation and awards it earned.