The Walls We Build- Good Will Hunting

"Some people can never believe in themselves until someone believes in them first."

Everyone carries baggage. We walk around carrying open boxes around us. Boxes of all sizes and weights, of guilt and shame and regret and trauma, in motion. It is an inescapable and unavoidable harsh reality. Sometimes for people, these boxes become too big and too heavy, immobilizing them. Every attempt at moving forward is met with an ever-increasing resistance, until the boxes eventually close on them. Caskets of abyss.

One’s own strength doesn’t get him out of these metaphorical boxes too easily. He pushes people away out of fear or hurt, even the ones who genuinely try to help him. He feels he is safe and free just the way he is. But what freedom exists for a lockmaster inside his own prison?

The 1997 Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, directed by Gus Van Sant, is a psychological drama that incorporates romance and coming-of-age themes. The story revolves around a young man, Will Hunting, who works as a janitor at MIT. Played by Matt Damon, he is a diamond in the rough, with unmatched brilliance and a headstrong attitude. With tight friends, he spends his "merry" days and is, all in all, a bright and tough working-class lad. With his brains, he solves the toughest of math problems laid out by an accomplished math professor, Gerald Lambeau, played by Stellan Skarsgård, and becomes his “mystery math magician,” solving in a night proofs that took two years for the professors to solve.

An awfully brilliant man, but his equally awful hostile attitude lands him in jail. The professor bails him out, wishing to help him realize his untapped genius, and offers to take him under his wing if he agrees to go to therapy. In his stubbornness, he does not agree to it and does all that he can to push away therapists with his obstinance and tomfoolery. All of this changes when a kind-hearted therapist, Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, with a tragic but powerful backstory of his own, decides to not give up on him despite his repetitive and hurtful attempts to break Sean. His tender methods and understanding relieve Will of the buildup of twenty traumatic years.

The movie has multiple parallels, raising diverse questions and invoking a plethora of emotions in the viewers. It shows how years of trauma and abandonment lead to an arduous life. Throughout the movie, Will gets multiple chances to bloom to brilliance in any and all ways, but his past abuse makes him extremely scared of being vulnerable. He suffers from his haunting past, the grim reality that is his present, and cluelessness about the future. The movie also addresses successes and failures and the actual definitions of both. In a heated exchange between Gerry and Sean about Will's future, it is revealed how Gerry views Sean as a failure due to his life choices. Is it the worst failure to be unknown, to live your life without realizing your full potential, or is living your life the way you choose the greatest success?

It also portrays the sentiments Will harbors about the differences between "successes" and "failures," as seen in the development of his love story with Skylar, played by Minnie Driver. His fear of abandonment and inferiority complex are reflected in an aggressive exchange between the two when she requests him to leave the city and accompany her to California. Powerful and sentimental, the drama rips apart worlds of thought and touches softly the audience’s heart.

Spoiler alert: there are two monologues that had a profound impact on Will and opened his heart to heal. After rewatching the movie several times and crying every time, I cannot keep myself from writing them.

"You don’t know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much." -Sean Maguire

"You don't owe it to yourself. You owe it to me. 'Cause tomorrow, I'm gonna wake up and I'll be fifty. And I'll still be doin' this. 'Cause I'd do anything to have what you got, so would any of these guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in twenty years. Hanging around here is a waste of your time." (Censored) "I don't know that. Let me tell you what I do know; every day, I come by your house, and I pick you up. And we go out, we have a few drinks, and a few laughs, and it's great. You know what the best part of my day is? It's for about ten seconds when I pull up to the curb to when I get to your door. 'Cause I think maybe I'll get up there and I'll knock on the door, and you won't be there. No goodbye, no "see ya later", no nothin'. You just left. I don't know much, but I know that." -Chuckie Sullivan (played by Ben Affleck)

The name Good Will Hunting is officially played on two meanings: "the good in Will Hunting" and "hunting for goodwill." First for Will's self-discovery of his own inherent goodness and second for Sean's role in helping him find it.

With a microscopic view, it may seem that the movie is about realizing your full potential genius or not having a unidimensional view of success, but in reality, it is a heartwarming story about people healing from trauma together, freeing themselves of self-inflicted pain and suffering, and choosing to live by their hearts. Written by Damon and Affleck, it has a terrific storyline, great acting, and plain but powerful dialogue delivery. A hauntingly beautiful mix.

With that, adieu.

"I gotta go see about a girl."