As Good as It Gets 7-21-2013
The Roger Ebert film site reviewed this back in 1997, read it here, but I did not catch it then though I think my mother and her friend Eileen did. They liked it which may be why I decided to try it now. So, finally I got to see this soapy 16 years later. Ebert’s review felt it was a compromise, I think it was plain boring, white bread with store bought eggs all denuded from the real thing. The problem is that it plays into every politically correct stereotype there is and that in itself is amazing since these people are supposedly against this kind of thing.
It starts out great, Nicholson is in rare form. He reminds you of his role in the One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest with his dry sardonic humour, his vicious satire and lovely one liners. The problem is that all this evaporates into a Carnation condensed milk sappiness because, would you believe, a dog?
Frankly I did not but I continued on as this condensed into tapioca and he a sardonic living breathing man became Monsieur Milquetoast. Helen Hunt does her Mad about You thing but in a whiney way; this is pre-nose and face lift btw so she still looks real. it was nice too see the real Helen, but her role is too one dimensional and she did it in the series for years though at times I thought she was also Deborah Messing from Will and Grace. But that all makes sense since Will & Grace and Mad about You were popular then so in retrospect they were trying to commercialize off that, but weren’t those soaps already commercialization of a stereotype?
Two stars. The first 40 minutes is great. Tune off after that and miss the rest, you’ll be happier that way because I honestly wish I had.
P.S. This is a copy from my movie blog, the Stull Telegram. i am trying to close that down and copy the reviews over here, which is why the articles are backdated to the original Stull date.
In my anguish... 