REVIEWS

"GOOD WILL HUNTING"

Matt Damon is everywhere now. I remember him from "School Ties" as the main anti-Semite years ago, but now he's on magazine covers, he's starring in "The Rainmaker" (which I haven't seen yet), and he's starring in "Good Will Hunting," a movie in which he also helped to write. After seeing "Good Will Hunting," I gotta tellya, the bastard's got talent.

Damon wrote this movie with co-star Ben Affleck, another talented actor who was recently seen as the lesbian loving comic book artist in "Chasing Amy." Together, they wrote a script that's clever, intelligent, and filled with marvelous dialog. They musta done a lotta research in order to get all that math stuff down, as well as all that gibberish that only "Jeopardy" contestants would understand.

"Good Will Hunting" is set in Boston, so you hear the accents. Robin Williams is in the film, and though he's very good, he shoulda skipped the accent. It kept coming and going, sorta like Kevin Costner's in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Minnie Driver is in the film, and she's wonderful (as usual). Also, one of Will Hunting's friends is played by the funky young character actor, Cole Hauser.

I was surprised to see that the music was by Danny Elfman. Did I read that wrong or something?

"Good Will Hunting" was directed by Gus Van Sant, a popular independent film director, but prior to this film, the only work of his I'd seen was "My Own Private Idaho." With this film, he seemed to trust the script and his actors enough to let them do their thing as the camera rolled. It works well.

This is a very entertaining movie that surprised me. I didn't expect these guys to write such a good script. And the acting was superb. I don't know if Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have another script in the works, but I hope so. They're good writers, and great actors. Way to go, guys!

Scale of 1-10: 9