Film Analysis: Good Will Hunting

Signe Olson Good Will Hunting - 9/21/2016

In the film, Good Will Hunting, Will is portrayed as a troubled kid with a tricky backstory but an amazing talent. He comes across as intelligent but problematic, and seems to have a lot of baggage that no one has cared enough to sort out. He doesn’t attend school because he sees it as a waste of money, yet he works at a school as a janitor and that’s where he gets his big break. His friends are people who seem to have the same lifestyle as him (they don’t attend school, and don’t seem to do much with their days except drink and cause a nuisance to those around them. One thing I noticed about the interactions between characters is the difference between Gerry and Sean when they interact with Will. When Gerry and Will had a scene together, it felt very tense. Gerry seemed serious when talking and in turn this made Will seem very serious as well - it was almost cringe-worthy. On the other hand whenever Sean and Will had a scene together, it seemed much more upbeat (except for the intense part there at the end) but still they communicated different. While Gerry and Will communicated verbally, Sean and Will had a lot of nonverbal communication; their most bonding-moments were when they were sitting in silence,
It started in the beginning as more of a “message transfer”, so people were talking at Will rather than talking to him. It then switched later to a “message exchange” where Will and Sean could have a conversation (two way interaction) and be able to express how they felt to one another. It was interesting to see that the more space that Sean gave to Will, the more Will was willing to express how he really felt. Whereas Gerry on the other hand, didn’t really give Will any speaking room, which caused him to be more closed