Film Review: Film in 1997–“As Good as It Gets”, Original Review And Later Thoughts

One of the genuinely better romantic comedies from the last 15 years, As Good As It Gets eschews easy-going romance and charges the story with down-to-earth characters who are real and complex. Although the movie’s not heavy on plot, it makes every scene count and finishes on a tender, moving note.

Jack Nicholson’s breezy performance earned him his third Oscar (and second for best actor) as a lonely writer with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Attention is on his off-handed bedside manner, and the moments where the audiences share in his predicaments are bitter-sweet and touching.

Jack gets his caustic lines that put off off-side with the love of his life, a waitress (Helen Hunt) who’s a solo mother with an asthmatic boy. She waits of Melvin (Nicholson) at the same time every day.

A series of complications get them involved in each other’s lives and into the life of Melvin’s nextdoor neighbour, a gay artist (Greg Kinnear) who Melvin doesn’t get along with him because he’s gay.

It’s an experience that wraps you in its cocoon and takes you straight into these character’s lives by making you want to believe in their stories. The romanticized shine on the characters because of the actor’s celebrity appears humanistic and phony, but the movie diminishes the shine by projecting the characters as down-to-earth people who struggle for ways to connect to others in humdrum yet amusing and sometimes hilarious situations.

Different people are reluctantly stuck with each other but drawn together by the gaping needs of the human condition. Seriously, sometimes that’s church; sometimes that’s what happens when Christians gets together.

Warnings—

contains offensive language, including profanity, and some violence.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr. Director: James L Brooks

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers

Later Thoughts:

I may not agree with the ideology of the film, as good as it gets, it is like saying no one has to change some things in their lives, it’s like me being dishonest amongst people I am uncomfortable with. However, despite the swearing, the film had emotional pulling power. It touched me.