By Scott Muoio

Critics often identify movies like As Good As It Gets as weak Academy Awards nominations. They like the film, think it is good, well done, etc. it’s just that it doesn’t have the pretension and serious gravity necessary to be a really great piece of cinema. In that sense, the critics are correct: As Good As It Gets doesn’t carry the weight of an all-time great film. However, when a movie makes me laugh hard over and over again, gets me thinking about my own life and decisions, and creates strange, interesting, and truthful characters then who cares about artsy-fartsy critical acclaim and snobbery? Quite simply, As Good As It Gets is an entertainment juggernaut that steamrolls the necessary hurdles of critical acclaim emerging as its own category of cinematic greatness.

The film weaves the lives of three very different people into a tapestry of easily identifiable humanistic troubles amplified by the magnitude of their personalities. Melvin (Jack Nicholson) is the bigoted obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon whose offensive off-the-cuff quips are as justifiably meaningful as they are ignorantly offensive and cruel. Simon (Greg Kinear) is Melvin’s artistic gay neighbor who receives a healthy dose of Melvin’s silver-tongued prejudice, which makes his already unfortunate circumstances even less bearable. Carol (Helen Hunt), a waitress at presumably the only restaurant in town that will serve Melvin, is a good-natured single mom whose preoccupation with her son’s chronic illness allows her to deal with Melvin’s relentless oddness and slander. Somehow, some way, the three find their lives intertwined, Melvin falls in love with Simon’s dog, Kinnear’s lover/art dealer, Frank (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) threatens Melvin into an odd compliance situation, and Helen receives the gift of a lifetime with unexpected complications that prove much more important to her psyche than she ever imagined. Throw in the requisite road trip and you’ve got a movie that has a little something for everyone.

Key to the movie’s success is the dynamite performances from everyone involved. Any of the roles could have come off as ridiculous, clichéd, or downright stupid if overplayed. Nicholson, Hunt, Kinnear, and Gooding walk the fine line between carving out memorable characters and remaining subtle enough to avoid groan-inducing parody. And best of all each character has his or her own quirks, passions, troubles, and disappointments and each deal with them in their own unique, human way. Only when everyone jumps into the convertible together for the road trip do things feel unnatural and a bit belabored, but even then the laughs carry through to the slightly long denouement.

Ten years after the fact, I loved watching As Good As It Gets. It may not be the greatest movie ever according to the highest critical standards, but for what it is As Good As It Gets is, indeed as good as it gets.

Director: James L. Brooks

Producer: Laura Ziskin

Writer: Mark Andrus, James L. Brooks

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding, Jr.