The two films I am going to get into depth with and compare is The Academy award winning drama Good Will Hunting, and also another Academy award winning film Mrs. Doubtfire, both starring the legend Robin Williams. In both the films Robin Williams plays an important supportive role and proves that he can make a difference. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also play great lead and supporting roles where we can see the characters grow and have a great motivational connection with one another. Both films give a great theme, with support, family and relationships being a main focus. Each movie has characters going through struggles and later in the end overcoming them. A lot of lessons can be learned in each film, and many people can relate to them. Good Will Hunting has characters who deal with loss, abuse, and lack of self-confidence. Mrs. Doubtfire has family troubles, separation, and trust issues involved as well. Both movies are easily relatable and comparable to each other as well. In both films family and relationships seems to play an important role. In Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon struggles with life and commitment, due to abandonment by the people who were supposed to love him the most. He was severely abused and in adoptive homes, he then preferred to stay as a manual laborer living in a dilapidated house in the Boston neighborhood. Throughout the movie he struggles to find his place in the world by first finding

out who he is. He is a genius and could solve math problems that the smartest teacher couldn’t. He never wanted to be noticed though. He was comfortable being the janitor and hanging out with his buddies, including Ben Affleck. He never had a sense of belonging due his is lack of parental guidance and being with his buddies was the closest thing he had to it. Ben Affleck acts as the “father” of the group. He drove everywhere; he was the person they would go to talk to because he listened. He was a loyal comforting friend to Will and that was the closest thing to a sense of family he had. So he didn’t really want to branch out and defer from that. But when Lambeau finds out he is the one who is the math genius he wants to take him under his wing and is determined to make him a success. Ben Affleck has a conversation with Will at the construction site telling him that he’s better than this and he’s smart and needs to get out of here because he can be a success, and I think that too because Ben was the closest thing to a father to him opened his mind up a little bit to doing better things. Having good friends like that in your life can really motivate you to do things. I know from not having any family down here in Florida that my friends are all I really have to go to when I’m dealing with issues, and having that constant support from my friends really makes a difference when there is no family involved, and then your friends become that family and give the motivational support that you need.
Will gets into trouble and is about to face jail time, but Lambeau arranges for him to forsee jail if he studies math with him and sees a psychotherapist, so of course Will agrees, but is not very compliant. Will then appears standoffish to this not opening up to any of the therapists resulting in none of them wanting to see him. That right there is also abandonment to Will; no

matter how difficult he was they should have tried to help. He acted the way he did because he doesn’t trust anyone, and them giving up on him after just one visit shows their lack of care, and further aids Will in being insecure and unable to open up. When those therapists failed, Lambeau then asks for the help of his old college roommate Robin Williams who was now a therapist. Robin or Sean in the movie challenges Will’s weak defense mechanisms, and after multiple unproductive sessions with Sean almost giving up he keeps cracking at him until he eventually opens up. Sean is very understanding and helpful to Will because he lost his wife and he had issues with that and trouble moving on and getting through it. Which in then helped him be more helpful and compatible with Will because of the hardships they both went through. It was inspiring to see these two grow as people throughout the movie and help each other grow, even though Sean was the therapist and Will was the patient. Also I think with the death of Sean’s wife, Will saw how easy it is to lose the person you love. And the stories Sean would tell him encouraged Will to build a relationship with Skylar (His girlfriend) and be more open to her.
Throughout the movie Will held back from opening up to her, and introducing him to his friends and where he lived. He didn’t want her to get to personal to him, in my eyes because he thought she was going to leave him too just like his parents did. Sean made him see that he was so used to anticipating future failure in his interpersonal relationships that he sabotaged them to prevent emotional pain. With much help he was able to overcome this take the chance of being with her because he did love her and he did and was able to chase after her and pursue her. Mrs. Doubtfire was an influential movie and made an impact on many. Many associate Mrs. Doubtfire with family, happiness, and entertainment. Family was a very importance piece.

Despite Daniel (Robin Williams) and Miranda’s issues the two parents ultimately did what was best for their children. And unlike Good Will Hunting where there was a lack of a strong family, Mrs. Doubtfire took great measures to make sure their children were okay and happy. Even though their marriage had failed Daniel made sure that he was a positive influence on his children any way he knew how. With both the movies the theme of “it’s not your fault” strongly appeared. With Good Will Hunting, Will struggles to open up and push himself to do better things because of his lack of love and abandonment from his family. Robin Williams during his therapy session repeatedly tells Will “it’s not your fault” until Will believes it and starts crying. And it wasn’t his fault, being abandoned from your family cause’s one to think and feel a certain way. Your family is supposed to be your example of how to live life, they are supposed to be the one that show you the way and show you right from wrong, and when there is an absence of that you have to figure it out on your own. This can cause you to be really closed off to people because you don’t want to let people in because you’re afraid of being let down yet again. If your parents can leave you then who’s to say that everyone else can’t leave you as well. I feel this was a great portrayal of this theme in this movie, and the emotion was very strong and connectable.
In Mrs. Doubt fire this theme comes up because with the divorce the kids had to go through loss and struggle. Katie their mom had to go through loss of her husband and had to be the breadwinner for her family. It wasn’t any of their faults the marriage failed. Like Mrs. Doubtfire tells Katie in the movie sometimes parents when they are angry they get along much better when they don’t live together. Just because they don’t love each other anymore doesn’t

mean they don’t love the children. You can see the love that is portrayed in this film and Katie and Daniel have much love for their kids even though their marriage failed. I relate very much with this because my parents were divorced to when I was really young, but with Mrs. Doubtfire Daniel took all means necessary to be in his children’s lives where as my father didn’t and lived across the country from us. So to me I felt a sense of abandonment that Will in Good Will Hunting had, but I at least had my mom for support. It was tough on her because she had no help and it was difficult raising two children and working full time, so a lot of things we had to learn on our own. I don’t regret any of it because I am a stronger person today. I really connect and appreciate these two films for representing these themes because so many children and teens deal with these issues, and when they see these films they can relate and know that it’s something that others deal with and it can be resolved in a positive way.
Each character plays their role very well, and there is a good balance of characteristics between the characters. You have everywhere from the mom, the dad, the therapist, the child, the friend, the teacher. There are so many different types of characters in these movies that people can relate to. That’s what people look for in films, as I know I do. I want to see a film that I can relate to my personal life, or that inspires me. It’s good because we can see how other people deal with the same problems that we have and we can learn from them. Not to say that every solution in the movies is the right one, but we just get an alternate view which can be helpful in some ways. I also like how with Good Will Hunting they use drama and emotional images to display their theme, while in Mrs. Doubtfire there is a lot of emotional drama going on but there is comic relief and it’s a perfect combination of the two, and also it makes the viewer see that even in down times there is hope for happiness and laughter.

You can see a comparison in these two movies with themes, and similar character struggles, which makes it interesting to break down the two movies and compare and criticize them. Especially when they are two separate genres but have similar lessons themes and even the actor Robin Williams. It’s amazing to see how these actors can play such different roles and are very well rounded like Robin Williams in his time alive and being in so many different films. He’s been in comedies, thrillers, dramas etc. Which in each he has won or been nominated for an Academy Award. So his we roundedness and quirk will be missed.