Movies That Stayed With Me: Good Will Hunting
/For me, Good Will Hunting is all about Robin Williams. This might be his best performance—though Dead Poets Society is a close contender.
“You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don’t give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can’t learn anything from you, I can’t read in some fuckin’ book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I’m fascinated. I’m in. But you don’t want to do that do you sport? You’re terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.”
I first watched this movie in my early 20s, during a time when I was trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be. Honestly, I probably only picked it up because Kevin Smith was listed as a producer—and I was already a fan of his.
The standout scene is the story about how Sean Maguire met his wife and that she farts in bed. It’s such a simple, human detail, but it speaks volumes. It shows how much he adored her, how deeply he felt that loss, and how love isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about the small, intimate moments that linger after someone is gone. It’s a seemingly random story and one you would not expect during a therapy session. I’ve watched the commentary and it turns out this scene was improvised by Williams and Matt Damon’s laughter was genuine, which just makes the scene that much more perfect.
The friends group also stands out, but they’re not really friends - it’s a found family. We never learn much about Chuckie, Morgan, or Billy’s families, but it’s obvious they all see Will as a brother. They aren’t just guys who hang out; they are each other’s safety net. For Will, they represent stability in a life that has otherwise been filled with uncertainty, violence, and the painful absence of people who were supposed to love him. They joke, they fight, but they show up when it matters.
As Sean puts it later in the movie,
“And why does he hang out with those retarded gorillas, as you called them? Because any one of them, if he asked them to, would take a fucking bat to your head, okay? It's called loyalty.”
The ‘It’s not your fault scene’ almost emotionally broke me at the time. Even though I’ve never had to deal with abuse, the raw vulnerability in this scene hit me hard. It’s a reminder that sometimes, no matter how smart or strong you are, you need someone to tell you that the pain isn’t your fault—that you don’t have to carry it alone. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s the slow build, culminating with the breakdown that just makes me tremble every time. That moment wasn’t just a breakdown—it was the culmination of months of trust slowly building between Will and Sean.
I will always remember Cole Hauser’s first scene as the guy with his head in his hands, sitting at the bar with a beer in front of him and never saying a word. His friends talk and laugh around him, but he never lifts his head. That’s a man who’s had a day and is just mentally done. We’ve all been there. I don’t know why that image has always elicited a smile from me, but it does to this day.
This movie also introduced me to Eliott Smith. That end song when Will ‘steals his line’ about “going to see about a girl” always stuck with me. When I was leaving home for the first time after graduating college I played this song and thought about the moment. I wasn’t leaving for a girl, but the hope for a different life. I played it again when I took a job in Illinois and was leaving my home, and family. For me, this song carries a mix of sadness and hope—an emotional tug-of-war between longing for the past and embracing the unknown.
Matt Damon is stellar. The writing is wonderful and heartfelt. This was my go-to movie on bad days, or when I just needed to feel something—sometimes hope, sometimes sadness. No matter what I was going through, Good Will Hunting had a way of reminding me that pain, love, and the search for meaning are all part of being human.