As Good As It Gets

Comedy, Drama, Romance

Jack Nicholson	Melvin Udall
Helen Hunt	Carol Connelly
Greg Kinnear	Simon Bishop
Cuba Gooding Jr.	Frank Sachs
Skeet Ulrich	Vincent
Shirley Knight	Beverly
Yeardley Smith	Jackie
Lupe Ontiveros	Nora
Bibi Osterwald	Neighbor Woman
Ross Bleckner	Carl
Jill the Dog	Verdell
Timer the Dog	Supporting Dog

Director	James L. Brooks
Producer	James L. Brooks; Bridget Johnson
Writer	Mark Andrus

For all of its conventional plotting about an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon (Jack Nicholson) who improves his personality at the urging of his gay neighbor (Greg Kinnear) and a waitress (Helen Hunt) who inspires his best behavior, this is one of the sharpest Hollywood comedies of the 1990s. Nicholson could play his role in his sleep (the Oscar he won should have gone to Robert Duvall for The Apostle), but his mischievous persona is precisely necessary to give heart to his seemingly heartless character, who is of all things a successful romance novelist. As a single mom with a chronically asthmatic young son, Hunt gives the film its conscience and integrity (along with plenty of wry humor), and she also won an Oscar for her wonderful performance. Greg Kinnear had to settle for an Oscar nomination (while cowriter-director James L. Brooks was inexplicably snubbed by Oscar that year), but his work was also singled out in the film's near-unanimous chorus of critical praise. It's questionable whether a romance between Hunt and the much older Nicholson is entirely believable, but this movie's smart enough--and charmingly funny enough--to make it seem endearingly possible. --Jeff Shannon