364th vote

Rating: 10/10 (2 December 2006)

With 363 preceding comments at this time, everything which can be said about this film is undoubtedly included somewhere among them.
I would add that Jack Nicholson's performance is among the best of perhaps the finest actor of our time. The two primary co-stars, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear provide equally-competent, engaging performances, along with Cuba Gooding, Shirley Knight, and everyone in the remaining supporting cast.
It is a very long movie, nearly 2-1/3 hours in length - but so enjoyable it seems like one of those shorter hour-and-a-half films. This is a true test of a completely-enjoyable presentation - and thankfully, the producers didn't try to cut its length to conform to a more normal movie theater show schedule.
The entire story, all of the characters, and their relationships with one another, one-on-one or in some sort of grouping, entertain without pause or exception during the entire film.
"Melvin" and all his cohorts are a group you're not likely to forget.
{Some of the folks on this site have characterized Helen Hunt's character/performance as "annoying." Ms. Hunt is not my favorite actress, but while agreeing her character here was annoying - I would add that I feel this was a necessary, understandable component of her character. Here was a waitress, living with New York expenses, commuting from one borough to another, and with a son with a bad case of asthma, hospital emergency runs, etc. (I have family experience with such asthmatic-triggered emergencies, although thankfully, without her character's financial and insurance problems.) All of the circumstances surrounding her life and work would certainly provide this sort of comportment. Further, since most of her character's displays of an "annoying" demeanor were with Melvin, a rich, neurotic individual, obsessed with self-centered trivialities, she couldn't logically avoid being impatient and less-than-empathetic to his seemingly (to her) relatively petty frustrations.}