From out of nowhere, it seemed, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck emerged; professional actors and screenwriters who left Hollywood's top brass gasping when they unveiled their masterpiece - Good Will Hunting.

The truth was that the lads had been working on this highly acclaimed movie for years. While still in their early twenties, their screenplay got a green light and they presented it to co-star Robin Williams.

"This is great," the funnyman remarked. "But seriously, where are your fathers?" Williams has a lot to thank the lads for. Aside from giving him one of the greatest roles of his career in psychiatrist Sean Maguire, they also helped him on the road to his only Oscar win. "I still wanna see some ID," he laughed, clutching his gong, as toothy Damon and Affleck looked on from the audience like some living advert for toothpaste.

Matt and Ben had been friends since they were kids growing up in Boston, and both the children of teachers, they were encouraged early on to take an interest in the arts in their hometown.

It was Affleck who nudged Damon towards the bright lights. However, the Good Will Hunting script could have been a very different thing had director Rob Reiner not stepped in to whittle the movie down to its basics.

"A lot of it came from our inexperience as writers, just not knowing where to take the story,'' Damon admits. ''We had well over 1,000 pages of these characters.

�We had the National Security Agency taking an interest in his gift and wanting him for their nefarious schemes."

Eventually, the script became a lot simpler, focusing on Will Hunting (Damon), a gifted, troubled young man who has a photographic memory and the ability to solve absurdly difficult maths problems.

A bit handy with his fists is our brilliant lad and so ends up at the offices of psychiatrist Sean Maguire (Williams). The hirsute quack manages to befriend Will and attempts to get to the bottom of his social problems.

Witty, touching and blisteringly clever, this movie, it never travels down the road marked "Cliche".

Although there's many a golden-hued moment reminiscent of Dead Poets' Society, it scarcely matters. As with all good movies, its message is simple. Seize the day, make the most of yourself and your life. But it never rams the fact down your throat.

Good film hunting?

The search ends here.

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