Will Hunting is only 20 years old, but already stands out in his rough working-class Irish neighbourhood of South Boston. Like his friends, he does menial jobs between stints at the local bar -- and run-ins with the law. He’s never been to college, except to scrub floors as a janitor at MIT. Yet he can summon obscure historical references from a photographic memory and almost instantly solve math problems that frustrate professors. The only thing this remarkably bright, impossibly angry young man can’t do -- after his latest bar fight -- is talk his way out of a pending jail sentence. His only hope is Sean McGuire, a college professor-turned-therapist with an admiration for his emotional struggles and a keen understanding of what it’s like to fight your way through life.