I thought of reviewing a movie I saw twice over the weekend.
<b>Some Trivia</b>
<b>“As Good As It Gets”, </b>is one of the widely acclaimed movies of the nineties, released in 1997 propelled by Oscar winning performances. This movie was nominated for seven Oscars in the same year the box-office sweetheart, <b>Titanic</b> swept away the awards.
<b> The Story</b>
<b>Jack Nicholson</b> delivers a Show-stopping performance as <i>Melvin Udall</i>, a cantankerous, xenophobic, obsessive compulsive novelist with the meanest mouth in Manhattan. First few minutes of the movie is very carefully spent on building this wonderful personality. Jack is at his best, second only to his performance in “The one who flew over cuckoo’s nest”. His neighbors are an old lady and a painter, <b>Simon (Greg Kinnear) </b> who lives with his dog, <b>verdell</b>.
Some of the OCD characteristics of Melvin are when he has to lock his door, he flips the light switch five times, he can’t touch anyone else, he can’t step on cracks while walking in a pavement, and he repeatedly uses new bars of soap, while cleaning himself, Always uses his own plastics while dining out. Etc etc.
Melvin always goes to the same restaurant, where <b>Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) </b> works. He can’t bear to see other people sit in his favorite spot. Always wants his orders in a fashion and he wants Carol to serve him. Carol who is a single mother, on the other hand has to take care of her son who is asthmic and has some severe breathing problems, which is obviously beyond her means from the salary of a waitress.
Once while painting a model, Simon gets mugged and is severely beaten, after a painting show he conducts in his place. <b>Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding Jr) </b>, is Simon’s agent who confronts Melvin to keep the dog, while recovers. As things take turns, Melvin finds that he likes the dog, gets to see brighter side of life. Once when he can’t see Carol waiting for him, he goes on to help her by getting the services of the best doctor in town. This changes perception’s of Carol about Simon.
As things take a better turn, Melvin takes Simon and Carol on a trip to Baltimore where the depressed Simon, bounces back with a painting of Carol. They become good friends. Carol falls madly in love with Melvin. Melvin takes time to say yes to Carol finally and things go well.
<b> Technicalities</b>
The upbeat music of <b>Hans Zimmer</b> is a plus point to this entire movie. All the leading characters are marvelous. Even the cameo by renowned director (<b>Harold Ramis of Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters etc, … </b>) as Dr. Bettes is excellent.
<b>This movie won the best picture for comedy/musicals in Golden Globes of 1997, yet couldn’t compete against “Titanic”, albeit being the clear winner of the year. </b>
<b>Cinematography by John Bailey</b> is pleasant and <b>editing by Richard Marks</b> is almost flawless. This movie should have won another oscar for best original screenplay too. <b>Mark Andrus and James. L.Brooks who is the director of the movie also</b>, have done some excellent brainstorming and layout for this wonderful movie.
Verdell (Jill the Dog) is also a main character of the movie; having performed beautifully.
<b>Bottom-line</b>
<i>This movie is about life. How to take things as they come our way. How we can be totally wrong by being a judgmental person. Things that can change course of one’s life by some care and niceties shown by unexpected people at totally unexpected times. </i>
I would rate this as one of the all-time great movies for the performances of Jack and Helen and the story-line that is awesome.
This is a must watch for “Comedy Lovers”. If you haven’t seen it, do so immediately.
Review is complete. Please shower in your comments.
Inquizitor