On Good Will Hunting

It must be heartbreaking when genius won’t recognize itself, and that’s the most baffling problem of all in “Good Will Hunting,” the smart, involving story of a working-class kid from Boston.

It’s also heartbreaking to be able to appreciate true genius and yet fall just short of it yourself. A man can spend his entire life studying to be a mathematician–and yet watch helplessly while a high school dropout, a janitor, scribbles down the answers to questions the professor is baffled by.

Directed by Gus Van Sant, who sometimes seems to have perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue; look at the scene where Matt and Skylar break up and say hurtful things, and see how clear he makes it that Matt is pushing her away because he doesn’t think he deserves her. “Good Will Hunting” also proves, if nothing else, that Matt and Ben Affleck would have a career in the movie business even if they couldn’t act.

As Louis Armstrong once said, “There’s some folks, that, if they don’t know, you can’t tell ‘em.” This movie is about whether Will is one of those folks. “Good Will Hunting” has been rather inexplicably compared to “Rainman,” although “Rainman” was about an autistic character who cannot and does not change, and “Good Will Hunting” is about a genius who can change, and grow, if he chooses to.