Good Will Hunting Turns Ten

Another momentary flashback here to a decade ago this week, when Miramax released the Gus Van Sant film that would win Robin Williams, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon their Academy Awards. Good Will Hunting, starring and co-written by Affleck and Damon, became a huge success, rocketing its writers to rock star status - not something you see often (although you might be seeing it happen with Juno’s Diablo Cody this year).

So let’s see what’s happened since?

* Affleck jumped at superstardom immediately, taking any ridiculous big-budget thing he could find like Reindeer Games while also doing a lot of work with Kevin Smith to retain soe cred. Then nearly married Jennifer Lopez and became so ridiculously overexposed that it’s derailed both of their careers. He’s just now taking a different tack and winning back some of his credibility with his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. His brother Casey, who played one of their buddies in the film, is just now coming into his own as an actor with this and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

* Damon, meanwhile, stayed a bit more low-key, working interesting dramas like The Talented Mr. Ripley and eventually forging his own leading action-man saga in a less obnoxious and oddly respected way with the Bourne films.

* Williams secured his niche as a top-notch dramatic actor, which has served him well because his comedy skills have deteriorated into a bag of frantic stereotypical voices.

* Minnie Driver is now playing a recovering drug addict in a clan of con-artist Travellers and is married to Eddie Izzard in FX’s The Riches, to fantastic critical acclaim.

* Van Sant has been hit or miss since, with his shot-for-shot remake of Psycho being a significant miss, although Finding Forrester has to be considered a hit if for no other reason than it spawned the ridiculous, often-horrible yet occasionally-amusing absurd comedy site You’re the Man Now, Dog.com. Let’s not even mention the arduousness that was Gerry, the movie where Damon and Affleck Beta do nothing but walk around for two hours. I mean, yes, it does effectively capture the feeling of being lost in the desert and frustrated, but can you call a movie a success if it inflicts that much pain on the audience? I swear I fell asleep three times during the same shot in that movie. Anyway, Van Sant is back this year with a movie called Paranoid Park, and the only thing I’ve heard about this movie so far is that it’s been nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards’ Best Picture trophy.

Ten years can change a lot. I’m still not a big fan of the title pun, though.