i must admit that i was a tad skeptical of " good will hunting " , based both on the previews and the first fifteen minutes of the film , in which the main character will hunting ( matt damon ) , an mit janitor in his early twenties , is discovered to be an einstein-level closet genius when he solves two extraordinarily difficult math problems overnight . 
the only problem is that will is a tough street kid who's had his share of run-ins with the law , and before long he's being hauled in for assault after a parking lot fight . 
professor lambeau ( stellan skarsgard ) , who had brought up the math problems in his lectures , tracks him down and strikes a deal with the police : will is to be released , provided he works with lambeau on his math research regularly and attends therapy sessions . 
this sounds like the formula for mildly charming fluff , but " good will hunting " rises above its fairly mundane premise to deliver a poignant and clever drama . 
a conflict gradually emerges between lambeau and will's therapist sean mcguire ( robin williams ) - lambeau wants to get will to use his brain , while sean wants him to listen to his heart , both of which he has been largely neglecting . 
will finds that the former is much easier than the latter , so much so , in fact , that he gets bored with it and grows increasingly resistant to lambeau's attempts to recruit him into the academic lifestyle . 
he also has his share of problems with his girlfriend skylar ( minnie driver ) , an mit student who is moving to california at the end of the school year and would like a reluctant will to come with her . 
what makes " good will hunting " work so well , aside from the strong performances ( especially from damon and williams ) , is the depth of characterization and the representation of the conflicts in will's life . 
the script's sympathies seem to lie more with sean mcguire than with lambeau , but neither of them is presented as completely right or wrong . 
lambeau , while he may seem a little cold at times , is still written well enough that we like him as a character even when we're not sure if we like what he has to say . 
and sean , for all his warm-heartedness , has , as lambeau and later will point out , not lived up to his full intellectual potential either ; the therapy sessions turn out to be just as revelatory for sean as they do for will . 
will's reaction to this situation , and the way in which he slowly becomes more receptive to skylar and to sean , is presented in a believable fashion and in a way that forces the audience to consider all the characters' opinions , rather than setting up an obvious " right " and " wrong " side and beating them over the head with it . 
for a film with such an extraordinary character , " good will hunting " presents itself as remarkably ordinary ; it achieves the difficult task of making the next albert einstein into an everyman , a character to whom the audience can easily relate and who must make choices similar to those that almost everyone faces at one time or another . 
this film gives us real drama when it so easily could have given us merely melodrama , by having the government kidnap will to use him in covert spy missions or introducing some other equally far-fetched situation . 
 " good will hunting " also has its share of fun humor , such as when will , in an early therapy session , pretends to be hypnotized and smoothly parodies the alien abduction scenarios that have become so well known in popular culture . 
and in the one scene in which government agents do in fact appear , will blows them off with a hilariously scathing accusation of human rights violations in africa . 
will's relationship with his friends , most notably chucky ( ben affleck ) , is usually rather amusing , if somewhat crude ( the film has 100+ uses of the 'f' word , which was most likely the reason for its r-rating ) , and lends itself well to the development of will's character . 
add all this to the fact that " good will hunting " even manages to pull off an uplifting happy ending without getting excessively sentimental , and you might be wondering why i haven't given this film four stars . 
well , for one thing , no matter how well damon and affleck , who wrote the screenplay , and director gus van sant pull it off , the story is still rather contrived and not particularly original . 
there are also a few scenes that did feel a bit formulaic , including one that was supposed to be emotional but really just seemed like the obligatory crying scene for any movie involving therapy sessions . 
still , " good will hunting " takes its premise a lot farther than i thought it would , and is definitely one of the better personal dramas i have seen in the last few years , and as of right now it stands as one of the top five on my list of '97 films .