A movie character I'd like to have a drink with: Sean Maguire from 'Good Will Hunting'
I miss Robin Williams every time I watch him in a movie.
Some movies feel like comfort food—a way out for living souls who have had their asses kicked by real life. This has been known since the first movie acquired sound. Watching Arnold Schwarzenegger blast through an army of bad guys with only a couple of changes of clothes carries thrills. Denzel Washington or Julia Roberts putting the screws to a character never gets old. But would you want to have a drink with those people? Maybe. Maybe not. Certain characters, though, stand out from even the most perfectly cast movies. So, I asked myself which character I’d like to drink with and came up with Sean Maguire.
Last August, the ten-year mark since Robin Williams’s death struck moviegoers like a small yet potent hammer. Painful reminders like the human beings built like us who create magic out of words and motion on screen are just as fallible as us. Audiences usually mourn for months or a few years for a fallen actor or celebrity, but Williams's passing stings extra every time one of his movies comes on the television. Hulu added Good Will Hunting recently, and I did my best to avoid it.
Hours may have turned into days, but those didn’t have a chance to become weeks before “play” was clicked this past week. I like to rewatch movies I love episodically, so the enjoyment doesn’t just come and go like a great meal. Trickle it out slower so the leftovers remain for the next few days of cinematic yearning.
Williams is the stick of dynamite that made Gus Van Sant’s 1998 Oscar-winning movie jump off the screen. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgard were terrific in their roles, but it was Williams who stole our hearts. The Academy gave him an Oscar, but a Field’s Medal would have been more precise. Sean felt more authentic than anyone in the movie and had the best lines. We felt closest to him.
A brilliant mind who chose the street between Skarsgard’s Gerald Lambeau and Damon’s Hunting, Williams encapsulated everything about a therapist that patients yearn for when searching for someone to speak with about life’s most brutal punches. Williams made him accessible to the audience, just like Sean was to Will in the movie. Every once in a while, an actor climbs all the way into the role and makes it seem like he’s lived there for years.
Sean and I could shoot the shit about the addictions of baseball and great women. We could discuss the painting, the fateful scene where Sean puts his hand around Will’s throat after the cocky young bastard makes a crack about marrying the wrong woman.
My interpretation of the painting of a person at sea alone during heavy waves is symbolic of the life that Maguire discovered after his wife died from cancer. When you marry someone that you love as much as life itself, being a widow seems like battling raging waters and unpredictable attacks alone instead of together. 98% of us would like to fight those things with some help.
I’m sure Sean could rant on about the Bill Buckner grounder miss like I could Mike Matheny allowing Michael Wacha to pitch to Travis Ishikawa in the NLCS. I could complain to him about the same manager relentlessly trying to get David Ortiz out in the 2013 World Series instead of pitching to the other eight guys in the lineup.
A character that seems to feel real will always be one that the viewer can find common ground with on certain things. The sad darkness in Sean’s eyes as he stares at a chess board and glass of bourbon can be shared by many, but less than that broad amount would enjoy a drink and sandwich with an old friend/life rival at a bar during the day. It’s the little things that an actor does with the role that connect.
The cool part is the true story behind the impact of Williams on the movie itself. Affleck and Damon won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but both admit Good Will Hunting doesn’t get made without the casting of Williams. He was the key piece in the puzzle for the studio to greenlight the picture. In a way, he was as vital to the movie as Sean was to Will.
Every viewing of the movie reaffirms that there will never be another Robin Williams. Other actors could have played Sean Maguire if there was a scheduling conflict, but nobody would have come close to the impact that the late actor left with the work. 27 years later, Good Will Hunting hits harder than ever.
“You have no idea what it’s like to lie next to a woman and feel completely vulnerable.”
Yeah, Sean, that is the good stuff.
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