Matt Damon received his first acting Oscar nomination for playing
troubled mathematical genius Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting.
The biggest factor in this is in the character of Will Hunting himself, a character who is very much a screenwriter's invention, as originally the character was more so designed for a spy thriller that was wisely scrapped. I think that idea persists, and almost seems as though it was probably revived for Ben Affleck's later thriller film about a genius in the Accountant. The idea seems to live there still in the construction of the super genius, helped by typically taking on goofy straw men who look off baffled by the super genius young man they just encountered, who is also this working-class Southie. What precisely seems phony about this however is the question is it the script or is it the performance by Matt Damon, in what was his breakout turn, to blame? All I know is in my original review I focused FAR too much on Damon's thick Boston accent, though I think that speaks in part to where the falseness of the character exists, though that isn't the accent.
The idea of Will as someone whose intelligence wouldn't be discovered well into adulthood despite how evident it is never explained, in turn, the creation of the "street thug" genius does feel like crafting of an idea rather than the natural exploration of one. As written, but more so as performed. Damon I think is least convincing as the man of the streets of Boston. That aspect of him comes off as phony and someone trying to play towards "street" cred without really existing in the state. Damon did well a few years earlier as the overtly privileged villain in School Ties, and that is where his presence more naturally lies. Here it seems forced, even I would say in comparison to his co-stars in the Afflecks. Although they themselves seem slightly imperfect in that sense, compared to their later work set in Boston, so I think comes to Gus Van Sant's direction feels like a sanitized dirty that is just an unusual and really odd combination.
Damon portraying the genius equally doesn't entirely ring true because it is with this kind of intensity that in itself always feels like an actor performing the genius rather than the young man who is just a genius. His rattling of the various monologues is honestly executed too expertly that it feels false in a sense and feels again like the idea of genius rather than an honest to God genius. Watching this again I don't think this is a truly bad performance, for the most part, just often enough. Where his performance does work I think is his scenes with his Oscar-winning and nominated co-stars in Robin Williams and Minnie Driver. There his performance loosens up enough to have a degree of naturalism whether that is in the romantic context with Driver or the more fatherly camaraderie with Williams as his psychiatrist. One can argue I suppose that the rest of Damon's work is all put on, and this isn't but, I think that is an easy out as there is a more natural way to do a put-on that we see with Damon's genius scenes.
Either way, the performance does work to a degree in portraying his more vulnerable moments of trying to be a genuine romantic. Or his quiet moments of reflection when seeing that Williams's Sean does have some genuine human experience that he truly understands in a way that Will isn't ready to. Their interactions do work and do have moments where the film strikes towards something more honest and true. Having said that, I think his performance falters in the biggest emotional moments where the character reflects on his childhood abuse. There Damon plays hard into the emotion, and sadly I only feel the trying attempt to hit the emotion rather than just the emotion in itself. He cries he forces it out and it feels like someone crying and forcing it out in someone playing it with as much melodrama as he can muster. He doesn't naturally earn the breakdowns they happen so quickly, that it comes off as a touch phony. After many years I still don't buy into this performance as something truly special, as his Oscar nomination would suggest, but there are decent moments within his inconsistent turn.
8 comments:
Hmmm, well I do agree with everything you say, but I don't know if I'd rate him that low.
Thought he was alright, but nothing great, really.
Sage Slowdive: Well I am glad you agree. I feel comfortable with a 1.5 for Damon though.
Joe Burns: Nothing nomination worthy.
What did you think of Driver and Williams?
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Minnie Driver, who probably gives one, if not the most boring supporting performance in her category.
Joe Burns: Williams was okay at times, but he did some things very wrong. Such as his accent was really all over the place, and a few times I thought he was doing the comedian Robin Williams.
Joe and Sage: Driver basically is just boring, and uninteresting.
Are you fucking nuts? Damon's character in this film touches the internal receptors we all have - or should have - and really lights them up. And his portrayal of genius is inherent in his own being as a person, not just as an actor. You pompous, narcissistic idiots!
I've felt for a long time that Matt Damon should've won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Good Will Hunting. Now we know he won Best Original Screenplay with Ben Affleck, which was rightfully deserved, but I feel he should've won over the other Nominees. They were all good, but I feel Damon was stronger, especially since the performance he was nominated for an Oscar for was essentially his breakout role.
I'll give you some descriptions of all the nominees that were nominated in 1998:
Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting: Damon plays Will Hunting who is a math genius, but even though his friends, particularly Ben Affleck, want him to succeed, Will doesn't want that type of life. Even though he works with a math genius, played by Stellan Skarsgard, who wants him to use his potential as well, though he may be just using him for personal gain, and Will sees a psychiatrist, played by Robin Williams, who want him to do what is right for himself and to let people in, but Will is skeptical about the whole thing, especially when learning he's an orphan which does , hope I didn't spoil anything for anyone reading. Even his girlfriend, played by Minnie Driver, seems to want him to use his potential and let people in.
Robert Duvall in The Apostle: Duvall plays a charismatic preacher who constantly sleeps around. And his wife gets upset, starts sleeping with someone else, and gets the church to — whatever it is when they’re no longer an official preacher. No defrocked, because he wasn’t that kind of priest. He touches farmers’ daughters, not little boys.
Peter Fonda in Ulee’s Gold: The film is about a beekeeper who is raising grandkids because his son is in jail and his daughter-in-law is a drug addict who has disappeared. And his son begs him to find the daughter-in-law and bring her back. So he does this, and they bring her back, try to help her detox, and then him dealing with his son’s criminal associates who want some sort of hidden money their son has.
Dustin Hoffman in Wag the Dog: The film is about a Bill Clinton-esque President (the film was released before the Lewinsky thing) who, two weeks before reelection day, he was alone in the oval office with a dancer, who claims the president harassed her
Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets: Nicholson, misanthropic author who becomes a better person with the help of Helen Hunt and his gay painter neighbor Greg Kinnear. The film is good, and so is Nicholson, who won the Oscar for this film. The only problem is that Nicholson has been playing this type of character for a long time. You may say that he started playing it in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and as well in Terms of Endearment, which he also won Oscars for, but here in the 90s we've seen this type of performance done by him already and there are other movies he acted this way, Batman in 89 for instance.
My point is Damon played a character that could've been a part that any other actor that came to play him, might not have worked at all. Damon, yes he did write the part for himself, but I feel you'd want to do justice to the character you wrote on page for yourself to translate to film as well. That wouldn't be an easy feat to do, and the whole film is amazing as well as the performance. Now, these roles are all different, but still, in my opinion, Damon stands out the most. His character has depth that we see come to light throughout the film, and I still feel there's a lot we don't know about Will Hunting. The other nominee's characters do have depth, but, to me at least, not to the level as Damon's portrayal as Will Hunting. That's just me though, so I could be a minority on this...
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