Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting didn't really work for me until Robin Williams was introduced. The opening scenes have an almost amateur vibe to them, hinting at talent from the performers and the production crew but not working quite right. Too much of that stuff has been parodied and referenced endlessly, and some scenes just flat out look terrible, like the ill-advised slow motion fight scene. It just feels like it's of a time and that I missed the boat on enjoying it while it was fresh.

But then Williams comes along and suddenly the whole movie gets a lot better. His performance is totally outstanding, and that's part of it. But everything else seems better too, like a switch has been turned on. It seemed like the script by stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was trying too hard at first to establish their story about Will Hunting, the genius from a broken home who could do anything if he got over his personal troubles. But after the fight, Will's only way to avoid jail time is to do math work at MIT where he was a janitor and see a therapist. Williams is the one who sticks, and from there they develop an interesting rapport at the same time that Will gets involved with a Harvard student played by Minnie Driver. The two storylines work well in tandem, as Williams tries to help Damon push through his barriers at the same time that he's attempting to do the same on his own.

The super-genius stuff almost feels tacked-on actually. It provides a reason for why Will's crippling personal issues are particularly devastating, not just to him but to the good he could do for the world, and also a couple opportunities for memorable, intricate monologues. But I didn't find it as compelling as the therapy or relationship stuff, or even just the scenes where he's hanging out with his regular Joe friends. Apparently the script started out as a thriller about the government trying to recruit a genius before it turned into what it is in the movie, so that part is actually the original seed of the whole thing. Still, it's not why I liked the movie. Williams deserved his Oscar, Damon is generally good as well, and while I had issues with some of what Gus Van Sant did, it's not a bad effort. I definitely liked it more than I thought I would after the first twenty or so minutes.

Clerks II

Clerks II is all right. Not the best thing Smith's done, but pretty funny. It's nice to see the old guys again, even though the presence of Rosario Dawson as an actual actor throws their badness into stark relief, plus brief appearances by Jason Lee and Ben Affleck add to the nostalgia. The movie runs on the fumes of past enjoyment a bit too much though, content to continually remind viewers of stuff that already happened before. There are a few new characters, although they're mostly used as the butt of Randal's jokes. I just had to look up what his character's name was. You decide if that means anything.

So um, yeah. Smith uses his characters as a mouthpiece for his opinions (Randal's rant about The Lord of the Rings having a boring plot and homosexual undertones was pretty hilarious while watching a movie where two guys talk about nothing for an hour before confessing their undying man-love for each other), has some WACKY sexual hijinks happen, Jay and Silent Bob do the Jay and Silent Bob thing, everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end, and it's all probably what you expect it to be. Not bad, but nothing new for him. Should I see his last movie about porn? I don't know. I probably will in the next few years.