As good as it gets

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2018)

Maybe a spoiler at the end....maybe. It is 2018 and this movie is now 31 years old. I am pushing 70 and have watched several thousand movies. For clean family-viewable entertainment, this has to be in almost everyone's all time top ten. Or five. Mandy Patinkin, a very fine actor, was never better than as Inigo Montoya, the Spanish swordsman. Robin Wright, barely 21, was exquisite as Buttercup. Cary Elwes has never, IMO, been quite as good as he was as Westley...but then, he was superlative as Westley, setting the bar very, very high. All of the acting ranges from good to great. The inclusion of Andre as Fezzik was random "geniusness"....it just worked, and worked oh so incredibly well. I have watched this movie many times and I still love it. The outer wrap of grandfather Peter Falk reading the story to his grandson Fred Savage takes the "Family Friendliness" rating to a fifty on a 1-10 scale. There are many, many characters to enjoy in this fanciful tale; my personal favorite has always been Inigo Montoya. The sword fight scene remains, for me, one of the finest pieces of dramatic comedy I've ever seen, no matter who was the victor.