An excellent comedy.

Rating: 10/10 (4 June 2012)

Jack Nicholson is one of the best actors on the planet, that is pretty obvious. He has such a smart alec and creepy charisma to him that you really can't look away when he's on screen. The actor has done a variety of terrific performances, from Jack Gittes, to R.P. Mcmurphey, to Jack Torrence, to Warren Schmidt, to Frank Costello. But one of his best work came in 1997, when the actor won his third Oscar for As Good As It Gets.
In this one, Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a grouchy Manhanhattan-ite who just does not understand people. But that all sort of changes when his neighbor Simon(a terrific Greg Kinnear) is brutally beaten in his home, and Melvin is forced to take care of his dog. He also begins to change when he meets a nice waitress(Helen Hunt in her Oscar winning role) who has a sick son.
As Good As It Gets is a wonderful romantic comedy. It's truly a one-of-a-kind. The dialogue is funny, and not just funny, painfully funny, and charming. The performances from all three deserve Oscars. Kinnear is the only one who went home empty handed, and he shouldn't have been.
There are plenty of moments when you really question what is going on in Melvin's head, and those are truly the most interesting moments of the film. James L. Brooks has always had a talent for charming over audiences, and here he does his best work, making lovable characters that are three-dimensional.
It's an utterly delightful film that should not be missed. Funny, romantic, awkward, and unforgettable. It definitely is up there with Nicholson's best performances. My favorite is R.P. Macmurphey, in which Nicholson plays a man who is pretending to be insane to escape from prison. But isn't pretending to be insane what Nicholson does best? A