As Good As It Gets (1997)
It is very difficult to not love anything directed by James L. Brooks (*Broadcast News*, *The Simpsons*, *The Tracey Ullmann Show*), and it is very difficult not to love what one friend calls "vintage Nicholson," so it is very difficult to not like *As Good As It Gets*. And what's not to like. It's funny, it's got a cute little pug dog, it's got a gay neighbor. Hey, it's got Helen Hunt. Why are you reading this review? Rush out and see this movie now!
Of course, with all this going for it, it's easy to overlook the improbability of the storyline and the unlikeliness of it all.
Sold entirely on the strength of Jack Nicholson's reputation (which suffered under recent nonsense like *Wolf*), it is greatly augmented by great performances by Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., and their little dog, too. The dialogue is very lively and often hilarious. Now, onto the requisite description of the situation comedy presented here.
Melvin Udall (Nicholson) is a bigot who has a nasty comment for anyone and everyone he meets--strangers, neighbors, and people he knows. He surely has no friends. He also has obsessive-compulsive disorder and hypochondria, which is played for laughs here, and which disappears as needed to propel the story along. Melvin is a creature of habit; he never steps on a crack, he uses a new bar of soap every time he washes his hands, and he eats lunch at the same restaurant, at the same table, served by the same waitress, Carol (Hunt).
Melvin's life is turned upside down when his gay neighbor Simon (Kinnear) is robbed and beaten, and Frank (Gooding) forces him to care for Simon's beloved little dog. Also upsetting the apple cart is the absence of Carol from her waitress station when her asthmatic son gets sick. This forces Melvin to reconfigure his OCD and prejudices so he can try to restore them.
What follows is the very unlikely road trip to Baltimore (from New York) so Simon can have some sort of reconciliation with his homophobic parents, which is sidelined by the budding romance of Carol and Melvin.
Does it matter that this couldn't possibly ever happen? No. Melvin is a 90s Archie Bunker, the bigot you hate to love, but you do anyway. The movie is very well written and has many funny moments, however unrealistic. For example, how does a waitress afford a multiroom apartment in an historic district in Brooklyn.
Especially noteworthy: Shirley Knight as Beverly, Carol's mother, and the scene in which the movie's title is uttered.
Written by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks.
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews