Towards the end of the film, Will Hunting grows tired of his role as math genius. He walks out of Professor Lambeau’s office, casually setting fire to a proof that only a “handful of people in the world” could have completed. What follows is, to me, one of the most memorable moments of the film, though it comes off somewhat comically in its incongruity. Lambeau, crumpled on the floor, having beat out the fire with his bare hands, says to Will:
Most days I wish I never met you. Because then I could sleep at night, and I didn’t have to walk around with the knowledge that there was someone like you out there…
Stellan Skarsgard’s performance is solid, and the line heartbreaking, but I can’t help thinking it more appropriate to a story of love lost. It’s a better line than “I have to see about a girl,” that’s for sure. (I wish at the film’s conclusion Will had stolen Lambeau’s line instead of his weepy therapist’s.)
Throughout the film there is an unspoken love Professor Lambeau feels for Will — his admiration of Will’s genius instills in him a vicarious sense of success, perhaps one he hasn’t felt since winning the Fields Medal (an award specifically bestowed upon young men, mathematicians under 40). Lambeau tries to take on the role of Will’s father, which isn’t such a good idea — based on what we learn Will’s real father used to do to him. Lambeau playfully tussles Will’s hair in one scene as they finish off a math problem, and we are to read Tom the bland T.A. as the jealous but undeserving son. Will Hunting is the prodigal son, but he refuses this mantle.
“Most days I wish I never met you.” It doesn’t quite work in the scene because until now, Lambeau’s affection and Tom’s jealousy is mostly played for laughs. Lambeau has been kind of a villain (in Will’s world the educated and non-Southie-accented are elite, effeminate, and inauthentic) but here he gets his moment. He’s a vulnerable and defeated old man. But ultimately I’m not sure the character is developed enough for this moment to come off as sincere as Skarsgard performs it, which is a shame.
I think of the “someone like you out there” line a lot; it is broad in its stroke, elegant in its desperation. And for many of us it is difficult to sleep, knowing some one person is out there, without us.
Interesting analysis. I loved the line as it was spoken in the film, but your point is a good one. I think Good Will Hunting has some flaws, but for me, comes quite close to being a nearly perfect film.
Wow, I just love your writing. So professional, you must be a writer.