By default, one of the best films of the year

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2000)

At first, i didn't know if I should put this film in my best of the year category, I liked it alot, but I wondered if Titanic would go over it. It didn't, so I put this film in, and well deserved. The film is directed by Oscar winning director James L. Brooks (of Terms of Endearment and The Simpsons TV show fame) and stars Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt (Nicholson won his third Oscar for this and Hunt won her first).

The story follows a bitter old scrooge (Nicholson in his usual perfect self) who is also a romance novelist (his line "I think of a man, and I take a way reason and accountability" when describing writing women is classic), but through a series of events including a cute dog, a gay artist (Greg Kinnear is endearing in this role), and a waitress with some problems (Hunt), he becomes a little better. Conventional to be sure, but it is definately a winner in laughs and romance. That's comic veteran Harold Ramis as a doctor. A+