In 1994 Ben Affleck and Matt Damon finished writing a screenplay for a thriller that centered around the idea of a young “Southie” from Boston who is being recruited by the government because of his genius intelligence. After Miramax bought the rights to the film, president Rob Reiner encouraged Damon and Affleck to drop the thriller idea and focus instead on the relationship between the young man and his therapist, with an additional romantic twist thrown in. This became the film that we all know as Good Will Hunting that was nominated for nine Oscars and won two: Best Supporting Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon. I can still remember watching the two of them up on stage at the Academy Awards that year. There are a number of bar scenes in the movie, the most analyzed being the one that occurs in the Bow and Arrow where Will puts a pompous Harvard student in his place and captures the heart of Skylar (Minnie Driver) in the process. This scene is certainly critical to the film because it reveals the extent of Will’s genius to the audience, while simultaneously establishing the instant attraction between him and Skylar. At the advice of my son Connor, who helps me so much in working through my ideas for these movie posts, I chose to look instead at the more understated bar scene that occurs between Will’s therapist, Sean Maguire, and his mentor, Gerard Lambeau, played by Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård, respectively.
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