As Good As It Gets is Great
Jack Nicholson is Better

Jack Nicholson has made a career out of playing psychopaths. From his Academy Award® performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to films like The Shining, Jack has never been one to shy away from the more unsettling roles. All this makes him the obvious choice to play Melvin Udall, a reclusive romance writer, in As Good As It Gets.

Don't let him fool you. There is nothing about Melvin to like. He's obsessive, arrogant, crass, crude, and oblivious to the feelings of other people. Melvin is not the kind of person any right-thinking human would want to be around. Still, you know that by the end of this movie you are going to love him.

Melvin has no love for people, least of all his gay neighbor, Simon (played surprisingly well by Greg Kinnear). He has even less love for Simon's dog, Verdell, but when he is forced to take care of the dog while Simon is in the hospital (long story) he learns to care for something other than himself. In this small way, Melvin begins to change, actually feeling angst when the dog is taken back.

Helen Hunt (co-star of television's "Mad About You") plays Carol Connelly, the only waitress at a local restaurant who can tolerate Melvin. Her strong character seems capable of handling Melvin at first, but when he mentions her ill son she nearly breaks down in tears. The anger in her voice makes the audience tremble, but Melvin seems unable to grasp what he has done wrong.

Hunt and Kinnear do a wonderful job working along side Nicholson. Note that I say "along side." They are not second-tier actors in supporting roles. They both play wonderfully off of Nicholson in a way that surprised and delighted me. Kinnear does a great Jack Nicholson impression at one point in the movie. It had me in stitches. Hunt, despite her inconsistent Brooklyn accent and hair color, does a wonderful job of being strong and vulnerable at the same time.

This great cast is backed by some equally wonderful supporting performances, including Oscar® winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. Cuba plays Frank, an art dealer showing Simon's work, who stands up for his client in a way Simon can't. Skeet Ulrich plays a male prostitute who is hired as a model for one of Simon's paintings and finally sees the beauty that Simon is trying to capture in his work.

I hate having my feelings manipulated, but something about As Good As It Gets moved me in a way I have trouble describing. I genuinely cared about Melvin, able to sense right off that he was as much a victim of his compulsive behavior as those whom he victimized. But there is something unsettling about a man whose every thought is spoken, and who has no use for euphemisms. His choice of words like "colored" when speaking about Frank, or "fag" when describing his neighbor, shock the audience and make us cringe.

This movie is not about relationships or even about love. It is about watching people, a theme which reoccurs throughout the movie. Simon watches people, looking for that one moment which he captures on canvas. Melvin learns about people by listening, even when they're not talking directly to him. Carol has watched over her son for so long that she has forgotten to look out for herself.

As Good As It Gets is a wonderful movie. The characters, which are frightfully real at times, move us in a way that leaves us better for having met them. As Melvin says to Carol, "You make me want to be a better man." Isn't that what life should be about? We should all be so inspired.

MY RATING: 8 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 138 min.