Late last summer, my fiancee and I saw a preview for What Dreams May Come. She uttered her disdain for this film by remarking, "Not another movie with Robin Williams in his 'inspirational' mode!" Now, I didn't think that picture looked too hot, but I leapt to Williams' defense by stating that he really hadn't made that many films of that ilk; we also had Dead Poet's Society, Awakenings and Good Will Hunting, but I didn't think that four films over 20 years indicated a trend. (She argued that Mrs. Doubtfire fell into that category, but I disagreed; it was too much of a straight comedy with a saccharine message to qualify.)

A couple months later, we saw the trailer for Patch Adams. You know how sometimes on The Flintstones, Wilma will put Fred in his place and he'll physically shrink down to about six inches tall to show how small he feels? Well, that was me! I sank so far in my seat when we saw that preview that I almost slipped under the cushion! Maybe this is a trend after all...

Who'd believe that the guy who's career ignited as wacky Mork from Ork would now be the reigning king of melodramatic inspirational fare? I have no objection to comedic actors growing and attempting more serious fare, but Williams' career has taken a truly revolting development. I never have been much of one for those pathetic "triumph of the human spirit" kinds of films, so I avoided seeing Good Will Hunting (GWH) and What Dreams May Come. A friend suckered me into attending Patch Adams, and I thoroughly regretted that painful experience.

On a recent visit to my parents' house, I noticed that my Dad's burgeoning DVD collection contained the recent special edition release of GWH. Initially, I resisted borrowing it, but since my father and I usually disagree about movies, and since I enjoy arguing with him about movies, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Much to my dismay, I found that I actually thought GWH was a pretty entertaining little movie. (Damn, I hate it when my Dad's right!) While the film definitely features too many "ooh! that's amazing!" scenes for my taste - mainly shots of boy genius Will (Matt Damon) impressing us with his raw brainpower - I thought that it held back from really overwhelming us with those kinds of bits, unlike a much less subtle piece of dreck like Patch Adams, which wore its emotions on its hairy, yellow butt.

One other area in which GWH distinctly improved upon Patch Adams comes from Williams' much more subdued and believable performance. When he gets into inspirational mode, Williams tends to come across as perhaps the most sanctimonious and self-righteous person who ever walked the Earth; he seems so damned smug and in love with himself that I barely retain my lunch. Thankfully, those melodramatic tendencies stay fairly well within check during GWH; I don't know if I would have given him any awards for his performance, but I thought Williams did some of his best work in a long time.

The rest of the cast performed surprisingly capably as well. I expected little of dueling pretty boys Damon and Ben Affleck (as Will's buddy Chuckie), but they worked very nicely and naturally. Affleck especially came across well as an amusing lunkhead; while Damon occasionally didn't seem quite as all-fired brilliant as he was supposed to be, Affleck really appeared to inhabit the role of working-class Chuckie.

All in all, it's a much more understated film than I expected. Even though I knew Patch Adams would be a simpering, sanctimonious sobfest, it still overwhelmed me with how low it sank. GWH, on the other hand, always keeps its feelings in check and it never uses cheap emotional bombastics to create artificially involving drama.

Interestingly, it's a very talky movie, but I didn't really notice that until it was over. During the commentary track, director Gus Van Sant notes that most of the film is propelled by dialogue, not by action; people talk about their feelings and thoughts rather than actually doing much of anything. This is an accurate synopsis, and while it sounds deadly dull, it's really quite interesting.

In fact, probably the worst thing about GWH is the Hollywood clout is gave to Van Sant. Without the phenomenal success of this movie, it's unlikely he would have gotten studio clearance to attempt the piece of career suicide known as his ill-fated remake of Psycho.

One of the best things about GWH is that it's inspired a terrific DVD release from Buena Vista. That's a studio that hasn't been too popular with DVD fans because of their line of overpriced DVDs that almost entirely lack any of the little "extras" we've come to associate with the format. In late 1998, they initiated a series of "collector's series," one of which was this version of GWH.

Although the success of that series remains open to debate (the other initial release, Scream, included very little not already available on the original DVD and cost $10 more), I found the GWH to be a great success. First and foremost is the absolutely lovely picture transfer. Without question, this is one of the best looking DVDs I've ever seen. I can't say that it's immaculate - occasional problem spots pop up - but at least 95% of the time it's pure gold. It provides an unusually deep image, with a smoothness and clarity that is hard to match. Focus remains consistently razor sharp, and colors radiate off the screen. Frequently I like a DVD image at the start of a film, but as my eyes adjust to the setting, I find more and more flaws. That wasn't the case with GWH; it consistently stunned me from beginning to end.

The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 mix definitely didn't bowl me over as did the picture, but I found it to be very satisfying nonetheless. This clearly isn't the kind of film from which you'd expect "demo worthy" sound; no exploding donkeys or flying gorillas can be found. What it does, however, it does well. Speech, effects, and music always sound very natural and realistic; GWH features some of the best dubbed dialogue I've heard. The rear channels mainly play music and occasional split surround effects. While the sound doesn't overwhelm or overtly impress, it creates a nice audio environment that properly complements the on-screen events.

Finally, here is one "special edition" that can truly be described as "special" in regard to its supplemental materials. The star of the show is its feature-length commentary from Van Sant, Damon, and Affleck.

The other major extra included on the GWH DVD offers 11 deleted scenes. Ten of these pieces didn't appear in the movie in any form, while one - a hilarious bit with Chuckie impersonating Will at a job interview - is presented in extended form. All of the segments are interesting, though you can usually figure out why they were omitted. If not, the DVD also provides commentary from Van Sant and Damon during these deleted scenes. They provide clarification about the details behind these segments, and they do so well.

The rest of the supplements provide less substantial information than the above-mentioned features, but they add to the value of the package. We get the customary trailer, plus three TV ads. We find a few minutes of moderately interesting "behind the scenes" footage. We see a six minute production featurette, which amounts to little more than an extended trailer. We get the music video for Miss Misery from Michael Penn wannabe Elliott Smith. Finally, we have the Best Picture montage from the Academy Awards, which is the little piece they run to introduce the films; it's not essential, but I thought it was a nice addition.

All in all, the DVD release of GWH seems to be one of the more lovingly created to come down the pike in some while. I resisted this movie, but in the end, I found it to be charming and provocative. The extremely high quality of this DVD, which is one of the best I've seen, certainly helped. It took Buena Vista a while to release GWH on DVD - the laserdisc version came out more than four months before this release - but that's okay with me; take all the time you want, as long as the end product is as terrific as this DVD. In spite of myself, I recommend the Good Will Hunting DVD without reservation.