Co-stars Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt swept the leading role Oscars for the male and female categories, and their onscreen relationship is one of the more memorable in cinema history. Forming a love/hate relationship and bonding through their various travails, Melvin Udall and Carol Connelly are one of the true odd couples of tinsel town. In fact, if a cast of lesser abilities had played the roles, the film would have been a drastic failure because such relationships would simply be unbelievable. Playing the role of Melvin's gay neighbor Simon, Greg Kinnear made a name for himself and entered into the hallowed halls of the who's who of Hollywood.
With an all-star cast that includes several Academy Award winners (Cuba Gooding, Jr. won for Jerry Maguire), As Good As It Gets rests its fortunes on the backs of its quirky and sometimes neurotic band of characters. More than able to meet the task, Nicholson, Hunt, and Kinnear strike gold with this Best Picture candidate which combines drama and comedy into a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. With one-liners zinging from Nicholson in almost every scene, you'll be hard pressed not to laugh out loud. And with Kinnear and Hunt to bring a serious note to Nicholson's strange character, As Good As It Gets breaks into the ranks of a short list of all-time great films. It's one you definitely won't want to miss.
Britt's Rating: 9.4/10
Article comments
1 - Baronius
One of Nicholson's worst. The Academy has made a lot of mistakes over the years, but this stands among the least justifiable Oscars. It wasn't just that he phoned it in; he's been doing that for years. It wasn't just that he left poor Helen Hunt to create chemistry on her own; she's won Emmys doing that. What made the performance so bad was that the movie was supposed to be about growing. He sat in the middle of the film like a tree stump. That was supposed to pass for character development?