# As Good As It Gets (1997)

### reviewed by
Nathaniel R. Atcheson

    As Good as it Gets (1997)

Director: James L. Brooks Cast: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Shirley Knight, Skeet Ulrich Rated PG-13: Language, nudity, violence

by Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)

I never thought any film labeled as a "romantic comedy" could be this good. I always associate a certain vocabulary with films commonly referred to as romantic comedies; words in this vocabulary include--trite, phony, contrived, dull, formulaic, careful, and shallow. I was relieved as I watched As Good as it Gets because I couldn't associate any of these words with this film. In fact, James L. Brooks' new film is the antithesis of all of these words combined, a moving, often thought-provoking story about a truly awful individual.

That individual is Melvin Udall, a racist, gay-hating, obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon. He's also a novelist and lives in an upper class apartment in New York. Across the hall is Simon (Greg Kinnear), a gay artist who is, of course, extremely nice, and has a cute little dog. Melvin eats lunch every day in the same diner, and his waitress is always Carol (Helen Hunt), a mother just barely scraping by because her son is sickly and always needing medical attention.

One fateful day, Simon is painting a picture of a friend of a friend (Skeet Ulrich), whose friends are in the other room, stealing all of Simon's things. When Simon goes to investigate, he gets beaten within an inch of his life. He loses all inspiration for painting and soon runs out of money. Meanwhile, Melvin really likes Carol, and despite his conduct towards her, he pays for real medical care for her son, who soon recovers completely. Then, the three people unite in a road trip to Baltimore in order for Simon to get money from his parents, to whom he hasn't spoken in years.

The first thing that really struck me about As Good as it Gets are the risks it takes, in dialogue and ultimately in characterizations. Melvin, for instance, is not one of those likable old curmudgeons--this guy is really despicable. In one extremely tense scene, he makes the mistake of insinuating that Carol's son doesn't have a long time to live, and her reaction to this is one of complete emotional rage. He also makes jokes--jokes that aren't really intended to be funny--about people's weight, religion (he attacks Jews in one scene), and sexuality (note the almost endless jokes about Simon and his homosexuality).

Though these moments aren't exactly pleasant, they do help to create a very solid character. This character is brought to life even more so by Jack Nicholson's performance--as far as I'm concerned, this is his best performance since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Nicholson tends to have that "I'm Jack Nicholson" aura around him when he's playing bad guys or token characters, but here he gives a deep and convincing performance as Melvin. Later developments of the character are extreme, and we can still see the same old Melvin there, but we know he's trying thanks to Nicholson.

The supporting performances are of the best this year. Helen Hunt proves once again that she can effortlessly upstage the sometimes limited realm of television and gives a truly moving performance as a strong-minded woman who really loves her son. Kinnear, too, goes way beyond anything I've ever seen him in (I still remember him from Talk Soup) and creates this frustrated man with ease.

There is something truly magical and refreshing about this film--it left me with a smile on my face that lasted for hours and hours after the film was over. The mixture of different people is fascinating and fun to watch. I loved these characters, and I loved their interactions through Brooks' witty dialogue and realistic situations. I wanted to believe that these people are alive somewhere in New York, just as depicted in this film. And when the screen blacks out in the end, I knew they were going to go right on living, and that everything would be okay.

    >From 0-10:  9
    Grade:  A

             Visit FILM PSYCHOSIS at
        http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies

             Nathaniel R. Atcheson

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