As Good as It Gets
Composite Score: 86.69
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith, Lupe Ontiveros, and Jill the Dog
Director: James L. Brooks
Writers: Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for strong language, thematic elements, nudity, and a beating
Box Office: $314.18 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
As Good as It Gets is James L. Brooks’s critically acclaimed romantic dramedy about an OCD shut-in author, a single mother, and a gay artist whose lives intertwine following a robbery gone wrong in New York City. The film stars Jack Nicholson as the abrasive Melvin Udall whose need to avoid stepping on the cracks in the pavement is matched only by his bigotry and general distaste for other human beings, joined by Helen Hunt as his regular waitress, Carol Connelly, a single mother of a son with a plethora of health problems who currently lives with her mother (Shirley Knight), and Greg Kinnear as Melvin’s neighbor from the same apartment floor, Simon Bishop, a gay artist whose dog Verdell provides another level of nuisance for Melvin. After Simon is attacked by a group of thieves, his stint in the hospital forces Verdell upon the only neighbor who doesn’t immediately say no, Melvin. Caring for the dog and witnessing Carol’s difficulties in juggling work and caring for an ailing son start to soften Melvin up a bit toward his fellow man, and after being forced together time and again, the unlikely trio find themselves on a trip to Maryland to help Simon ask his parents for funds to help him land on his feet. Revelations and inspirations bring everything to the satisfying rom-com conclusion that you want from the film that also carries with it hope for the people in our lives.
The film received loads of accolades upon its release, including seven Oscar nominations – Musical/Comedy Score, Film Editing, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Kinnear), Lead Actress (Hunt), Lead Actor (Nicholson), and Best Picture – winning Oscars for both lead actress and actor. The film’s screenplay lost out to Good Will Hunting; it lost Best Picture to Titanic, and the performance of Greg Kinnear’s career had the unfortunate luck of being nominated alongside an all-time supporting performance from Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Critics of the film can find plenty to bemoan between the problematic nature of Melvin’s whole character (whether it’s the portrayal of neurodivergence or having a deeply bigoted rom-com hero) and the film’s fairly formulaic approach to the actual plotlines of romantic comedy, but the performances and themes underlying the simple story go a long way in earning this film a spot that deserves recognition.
Greg Kinnear’s portrayal of Simon is refreshingly complex, given the typical representation of LGBTQ+ characters in mainstream media in the 1990s. He’s not just a charity case, rife with aids and a constant victim, nor is he some flamboyant queen flaunting his sexuality in cartoonish ways. He walks the wide road between the two, portraying a victim without ever playing the victim while also showcasing someone with a deep range of character and desires that isn’t just one note. It’s an underappreciated performance, given the wins of his costars, but it deserves to be recognized as a showcasing of the actor’s chops, holding his own scene in and scene out with his touted costars. Hunt’s win, though fully deserved for her complex portrayal of a romantic lead, again playing a character that could easily become a stereotype or archetype as someone truly unique and worth getting to know personally, looks less impressive given her competition, and she might have missed out in a year where Kate Winslet’s weakest Oscar-nominated role wasn’t her stiffest competition. Still, it’s an unquestionably compelling performance that highlights the highs and lows of not just motherhood but womanhood as well without ever falling prey to the temptations to generalize. At the end of the day, though, this is Nicholson’s film from an acting perspective, as he plays the character that he often did toward the end of his career – misanthropic, neurotic, troubled aging men who eventually (or not) learn to care about others – just at its most extreme, and that’s why he won this award over Matt Damon’s best performance from Good Will Hunting, which should, to me, still have won. Even so, Jack is in peak form as Melvin, leaning into every bit of the character’s ridiculousness and somehow making it feel real and not merely a gag. He is the worst human being you could ever think to encounter, but he still feels and loves and eventually connects just like everyone else wants to, and it’s really fun to watch Nicholson continuously stick his foot in his mouth as he plays this character whose redemption we somehow can’t help but root for. Without him walking the line between empathetic and deplorable, the film doesn’t work, but because his performance is so phenomenal, we get the full weight of the film and its encouragement to see the humanity in everyone we encounter and seek to better ourselves for them.
An amazing trio of performances from Nicholson, Hunt, and Kinnear carry the film and its message in As Good as It Gets, selling the romance, comedy, and drama that the film needed to earn a place among the greats. Some might take issue with the film’s formulaic plot or with the problematic lead character, but the film seeks to alleviate those complaints with a rich cast of characters and a lesson in empathy that should land with most audiences. If you’d like to watch this film soon, you can currently stream it on Max.
