In its short running time, Elfman's score for Good Will Hunting served as further proof that the composer's transition from large-scale Gothic efforts to more troubled character scores was in effect. Some of the instrumental usage from Elfman's collaboration with Van Sant for the bizarre To Die For carried over to Good Will Hunting, but with a far more listenable and streamlined personality. By Elfman standards, that is. His score features acoustic guitar, piano, slight orchestra (primarily for strings and woodwinds but also utilizing very minimal brass), whistles, and a light choral accompaniment. The presence of a pennywhistle, often performing longing fragments of the score's primary theme over soft guitar accompaniment, provides a distinctly Irish flavor to Good Will Hunting, perhaps a choice by Elfman to address the locale of the film's story. The solitary tone of the score is its defining aspect, raising adjectives such as mystical, eerie, pondering, ominous, magical, and withdrawn. In this minimalistic package, the score fits the personality of its title character well. Hints of elegance from Black Beauty are countered by dissonance from To Die For, and a slight sense of a plea for help incorporated musically into Edward Scissorhands is also present. Together, Elfman takes seemingly complimentary elements and makes them incongruous for parts of Good Will Hunting; off kilter progressions and rhythms and the slightly detuned mix of the orchestra give the score a wishy-washy sound that yearns for harmonic resolution but only accomplishes it in a few places. In "Main Title," "Them Apples," "Weepy Donuts," and a couple of short performances in between, the primary theme does just that. Not surprisingly, these are the highlights of the score. Like Will Hunting, though, Elfman's score gives the surface impression that it doesn't have a clear sense of direction. There is indeed a development that comes to a distinct conclusion in "Weepy Donuts," but it can slip by unnoticed so easily that the score likely won't maintain the interest of most listeners outside of the occasional beauty of the whistles over the top of the ensemble.

The score has never been fully released commercially. The two best cues, "Main Title" and "Weepy Donuts," were included on the popular song compilation album for the film, one of the better such products of its age. To boost its own chances for a high Oscar nomination count, Miramax pressed 500 copies of a promo that included 23 minutes of Elfman's music (17 minutes of which was previously unreleased). Miramax actually altered the pressing, causing two promos to exist. The first promo had no label and was 23 minutes long in total. It did not include any songs and had mislabeled tracks near the end (or tracks with no titles at all). The officially marked Miramax variant that followed and was more widely available on the secondary market has roughly 4 more minutes than the other due to the inclusion of the "Miss Misery" song by Elliot Smith that was also very popular at the time (Elfman further collaborated with Smith and the resulting music remained only on the commercial album). Both albums featured similar artwork on its packaging; the second Miramax promo has "Good Will Hunting" written alone on the side packaging, whereas the first promo (with the mislabeled tracks) has "...by Danny Elfman" on the side next to the title. The few copies of both original promo albums that worked their way to collectors began with a price of $50 at the CD stores in Los Angeles that would redistribute such items from Academy members to fans. But not long after, the promo fetched bounties over $100, a surprisingly high price for 23 minutes of score, the best seven of which already released. It was always far more economical for most listeners to just purchase the song compilation album. In 2014, Music Box Records released upwards of 30 minutes of the score and paired it with several Smith songs, including the short sequence of "Between the Bars" featuring Elfman's string orchestrations in the background. Even this was a limited and obscure album, and Elfman's score simply is not enthralling enough to merit a search for an original copy of the promo or the 2014 product. The sound quality on the two isn't significantly different. Watching a film about a confused genius seeking direction is one thing, but listening to a score that embodies much of the same isn't as thought provoking or inspiring.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download