One Of The Best Romcoms Ever Released On Screen

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2012)

James L. Brooks directed this $50 million-plus romantic comedy entitled,As Good As It Gets,that features Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic, obsessive-compulsive novelist; Helen Hunt as a single mother with an asthmatic son; and Greg Kinnear as a gay artist. The screenplay was written by Mark Andrus and by Brooks as well.
Dysfunctional, acid-tongued romance novelist Melvin Udall suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder and takes pride in his ability to offend. At a nearby cafe, the only waitress willing to stand up to his sarcastic tirades is Carol Connelly, a single mother struggling to raise her chronically asthmatic son. In Melvin's West Village apartment building, talented contemporary artist Simon Nye lives across the hall from Melvin. Simon is the current darling of the New York art world, reason enough to draw Melvin's verbal fire, but Simon's gay lifestyle is further grist for the novelist's malicious mill. These three New Yorkers, none of whom appears to have a chance in hell at finding true happiness, discover their fates intertwined because of the fourth complicated character in the piece, Verdell, a tiny Brussels Griffon dog . Melvin seems to have no friends or family, and he lives alone, working on his 62nd book. When Simon goes into the hospital after a brutal mugging, Melvin has to take care of Verdell, and the dog actually warms Melvin's cold heart to the degree that he sets up unsolicited medical care for Carol's son. Eventually, Melvin is cornered into driving Simon and Carol to Baltimore, and during a hotel stopover, Melvin confesses to Carol, "You make me want to be a better man." The trip becomes an odyssey of self-realization for all three.
It's a mark of how magically written, directed and acted,it is that the viewer will end up loving this film despite knowing how haphazard, scatter shot and almost indefinable its charm is.Both James L. Brooks and Jack Nicholson, doing what they do best, combine smart dialogue and flawless acting to squeeze fresh entertainment value out of the romantic-comedy genre.Added to that,it is both funny and sad, the comedy was in the vein of Brooks' Terms of Endearment, except it was more eccentric and nuttier and in moments genuinely touching due to strong chemistry between Nicholson and Helen Hunt.It succeeds at many moments even while pursuing its doomed grand design.Overall,it is one of the best romantic comedies ever released on screen.