Badly Edited, Written, and Directed

Rating: 6/10 (17 July 2001)

"As Good As It Gets" has three great performances. Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson deserved their Oscars. Greg Kinnear deserved his nomination.

The problem is that all of these performances could be in different movies. There is absolutely no glue holding these characters together. The direction appears to have been done scene by scene. There doesn't seem to be any story just scenes. The editing seems to have involved putting the film in a Blender and then putting it back together, piece by piece.
There are great moments though. Helen Hunt describing how she felt looking at a couple is a guaranteed tear-jerker. Helen Hunt bashing HMO's. Jack Nicholson buying a suit jacket from a doorway, washing his hands, and any scene with the dog. Greg Kinnear in the hospital, after he's beaten up. There are other good scenes as well.
"As Good As IT Gets" is worth seeing but it's barely a movie, just a jumble of scenes. James L. Brooks (the director and co-writer) obviously had a very hard time with this material.