As good as romantic comedies usually get? No, better!

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2006)

Hollywood has forgotten how to do rom-coms properly nowadays. With a few exceptions (e.g. Hitch), they're all so predictable and awfully repetitive. Lucky for us, As Good as It Gets is not one of those films. It's smart, it's original and it's also very, very funny.
The movie begins with the now legendary sequence where misanthropic writer Melvin Udall (a priceless Jack Nicholson) dumps his neighbor's dog, Verdell, down the garbage chute, telling the poor creature "This is New York, pal. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!". This hilarious opening scene perfectly serves its purpose: to make it undeniably clear that Melvin is one of the most unpleasant individuals in the world. Apart from the dog thing, he spends his days avoiding people or insulting them. Not the kind of behavior you'd expect from a guy who writes romance novels, huh? Anyway, things change once Verdell's owner, gay artist Simon (Greg Kinnear) ends up at the hospital. From there on, it's up to Melvin to make sure the dog's fine, and on top of that, our antihero starts developing feelings for Carol (Helen Hunt), a single mom who works in the coffee shop he has breakfast at every morning. These unexpected feelings, which he has only known about through his literary works so far, are going to transform his life forever...
As Good as It Gets has a concept which reminds of When Harry Met Sally: put two people, who would never go out together under the normal circumstances, in the same room (not literally, though) and see what happens. In this case, however, the story is made more interesting by the fact that its male protagonist is supposed to be beyond redemption. And Jack Nicholson does a wonderful job in making that man's craziness believable, but then again it's the kind of role he can handle with his eyes shut, isn't it? Hunt is also amazing, giving a career-best performance which was justly praised with a Best Actress Oscar, while Jack won his third "golden baldy" thanks to James L. Brooks'(yes, it's the director of Terms Of Endearment and executive producer of The Simpsons) charming film.
So, is this movie as good as it gets? Considering the direction romantic comedy has taken in the past few years, I'd say it's better.