Movie soundtracks are chancy in that the music is often geared to specific parts of the film that are meant to evoke concurrent emotions; many don''t hold up apart from their cinematic context. The trend of the past few years has been to gratuitously traipse down memory lane, with the convenient stance that a hit parade of ''70s funk will lend an otherwise bloodless film some street cred. Thankfully the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting doesn''t strive for fake urban cool; this film about white, working-class Bostonians gets a mostly white, working-class sound. The soundtrack effectively mirrors the half-filled desires and lives that the film capitalizes on: restlessness, ennui, doubt, and unrequited love rule here. Elliot Smith contributes the most, and the best, songs, beautiful weepers that outshine Danny Elfman''s somber original score, which makes only a few appearances. --Alan E. Rapp
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