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As Good As It Gets Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 68 Reviews)

As Funny As it Gets
One of the blockbuster movies of 1997, and nominated for seven Academy Awards, " As Good As It Gets" is a hilarious slant on romantic comedies. It's the story of an obsessive-compulsive writer and his gradual reformation to normalcy through the love of a waitress. Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinear, and Cuba Gooding Jr. star in this very funny approach to the life of Melvin Udall. Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is a wealthy writer of romance novels, but has no idea how to treat anyone with respect or compassion and romance in Melvin's life seems like an impossibility. He is homophobic, racist, and to top it all off sexist. Melvin is downright mean spirited and very crude to his gay artist neighbor Simon Bishop (Greg Kinear) while dealing with him. The insults and verbal jabs at Simon continue for the entire movie, even though Melvin eventually befriends him. The language and anti-gay dialogue is definitely not for the family oriented movie watcher, but in the context of this film it is truly funny. Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an art broker and the only buffer from the abuse from Melvin continuously heaves onto Simon. You guessed it Melvin eludes further to his flawed character by putting Frank in the stereotypical angry black man role. Frank is smart and plays on Melvin's fear of him and puts him in his place several times throughout the movie. Melvin's' love interest in this film is Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) who is a full time waitress and single parent to a sick child. Melvin will not allow any other waitress to serve him due to his disorder and starts to slowly creep into Carol's life. He finds out about Carols sick son and provides in-home medical care for him so that Carol is able stay at work to serve him. Melvin continuously does things that are self serving, but still are beneficial to the people he is so abrasive to, and these people are able to see some good in him. Carol does start to have romantic feelings for Melvin, and he slowly starts to lose a bit of his compulsive behavior and finds new friends in the most unlikely of people. This film will not tickle everyone's funny bone, and I can't recommend it to younger viewers due to the language and off color humor. I do think that a good many people will enjoy this movie and to see Jack Nicholson in this role was a real treat to watch. I rate this film at 4 stars and would give 5 if it were not for the language and crude humor.






"Is this as good as it gets?"
As Good As It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson(Melvin Udall), Helen Hunt,(Carol, the waitress), Greg Kinnear,(Simon, the talented gay guy), and Cuba Gooding, Jr,(Frank, Simons "partner") is one of decades more witty love comedies yet. It takes place in New York where Melvin meets Carol every morning when his usual OCD takes place at the restaurant on the corner. He likes Carol as she is the only one who will stand up to his rude remarks about the "outsiders in the world."

Melvin's real true colors come out with his gay neighbor, Simon, as well as another foreign neigbor he likes to talk down to.

When life takes a turn for the worse and relationships start to fall in place, you never know how you are going to turn out.

I can see now why this movie won Oscar Awards for Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in their leading roles and had nominations for Best Picture from Director James Brooks as well as Best Supporting Actor, Greg Kinnear.

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL
It wasn't until I saw Jack Nicholson in A FEW GOOD MEN that I realized I had been unfair to the actor for many years. Never one of my favorites, I always felt Nicholson just kept playing the same roles over and over. But in his awesome performance in A FEW GOOD MEN, I finally saw what the critics and Oscar voters had already seen: the man is an incredibly gifted actor. In AS GOOD AS IT GETS, for which he won a Best Actor award, Nicholson parlays all of his usual tics and gestures into a superb portrait of an obsessive-compulsive man afraid of living life, and most definitely afraid of becoming involved with other people. He is overtly nasty and one would never believe there was a real human being underneath all that venom. However, once he "babysits" his neighbors precious pooch, we see a side of Melvin that lets us know there IS a real person beneat that cynically oppressive facade. It's to Nicholson's credit that as he goes through the movie making mistake after mistake, we really hope he gets the girl in the end. Helen Hunt in her Oscar winning performance is marvelous; she exudes an everyday commonality and a warmth rare in many of our actresses today. While it's hard to believe she and Nicholson would ever hook up, Hunt's performance is so astutely controlled, we forget she's acting. And Greg Kinnear (so good in Nurse Betty) is a revelation as the homosexual neighbor, Simon. While not totally eschewing the stereotypical effeminance of homsexuality, Kinner displays a leading man swagger with the vulnerability of a lifestyle that can be challenging to say the least. Kinnear was nominated for a supporting actor award, and he is definitely worthy of that nomination in this superbly nuanced performance. Ditto to the marvelous Shirley Knight who plays Hunt's mother; while not on screen a great deal, Knight's relationship with her daughter is heartwarming and convincing. Even Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. redeems himself for Snow Dogs in a showy role as Kinnear's friend. Director James L. Brooks shows a keen sense of knowing how to get the best from his actors, and AS GOOD AS IT GETS is a wonderful film to be enjoyed by all those who have been in love and didn't know it!

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