Valentine's Day Movie #1: As Good as It Gets (1997) - Nicholson makes incredible character journey stick in great audience favorite

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Huge Hit of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year 

Jack Nicholson's giant grinning face is the whole shebang on this simple poster for James L. Brooks' As Good as It Gets

Melvin is a rich, single, OCD-suffering grouch, who doesn't attempt to curry favor with other people, as his gay neighbor suffers an attack, and he accepts looking after his little cute dog for a while. This spurs an extensive change in his life.

As Good as It Gets is written by Mark Andrus (Late for Dinner (1991)) and great New-Yorker co-writer/co-producer/director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment (1983)). It is a Hollywood formula romantic dramedy that really works.
It is well-written, sweet and funny and elevated by wonderful performances from particularly Jack Nicholson (Psych-Out (1968)), who is a riot here in the W.C. Fields-reminiscent protagonist, whose small behavioral eccentricities are some of the film's funniest features. Helen Hunt (Ride (2014)) is also a joy, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Shadowboxer (2005)) is good in a supporting role; Greg Kinnear (Murder of a Cat (2014)) is less credible in the part as the gay neighbor.
As Good as It Gets is a very good-looking audience favorite, which satisfies the need for laughs as well as eye puddles. The expert script is exemplary for use in screenwriting classes. 

 

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1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office:  314.1 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 6.28 times its cost)
[As Good as It Gets premiered 6 December (California) and runs 139 minutes. Brooks had Geoffrey Rush flown from Sydney to Los Angeles to audition for the lead part, but Rush declined it. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York from November 1996 - January 1997. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies, to a 12.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 7 weeks in the top 5 (#3-#3-#4-#4-#5-X-#4-X-#5) and grossed 148.4 mil. $ (47.2 % of the total gross). It is Nicholson's 2nd highest-grossing film, behind Batman (1989). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Actor (Nicholson) and Actress (Hunt). It lost Supporting Actor (Kinnear) to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting, Editing to Titanic, Music - Original Musical or Comedy Score (Hans Zimmer (Hidden Figures (2016))) to Anne Dudley for The Full Monty, Picture to Titanic and Original Screenplay to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting. It also won 3/6 Golden Globe nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. Brooks returned with Spanglish (2004). Nicholson returned in The Pledge (2001), Hunt in 6 TV and short credits before she returned to the big screen in Dr. T and the Women (2000), Kinnear in You've Got Mail (1998). As Good as It Gets is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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