As Good as It Gets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
| As Good as It Gets | |
 Original film poster |
|
| Directed by | James L. Brooks |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Laura Ziskin |
| Written by | Story: Mark Andrus Screenplay: Mark Andrus James L. Brooks |
| Starring | Jack Nicholson Helen Hunt Greg Kinnear Cuba Gooding, Jr. Shirley Knight Skeet Ulrich |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Editing by | Richard Marks |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1997 |
| Running time | 139 min. |
| Language | English |
As Good as It Gets is a 1997 comedy film directed by James L. Brooks starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and won for Best Actor and Best Actress. It portrays an obsessive-compulsive, misanthropic bigot who becomes involved in the lives of a single mother and gay neighbor and how they grow personally as a result of knowing each other. The movie is ranked number 140 on Empire's "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". [1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Melvin Udall is a racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic misanthrope who works at home as a best-selling romance novelist in New York. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder which, paired with his misanthropy, puts off the neighbors in his Manhattan apartment building and nearly everyone else with whom he comes into contact.
Melvin eats breakfast at the same table in the same restaurant every day using disposable plastic utensils he brings with him due to his pathological germophobia. He takes an interest in his waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), the only server at the restaurant who can tolerate his demanding behavior.
One day, Melvin's neighbor, a gay artist named Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear), is assaulted by one of his models in his own apartment when he interrupts the man's friends robbing him. Melvin is forced to take care of the artist's dog Verdell while Simon is in the hospital. Although he initially finds caring for the dog distasteful, Melvin becomes emotionally attached to Verdell and he begins to gain more attention from Carol. When Carol decides to get a job closer to home so she can spend more time with her acutely asthmatic son, Melvin's orderly world is gravely disturbed because Carol is no longer there to serve him breakfast. He asks his publisher to send her husband, who is a doctor, to Carol's apartment to care for her son, with Melvin himself paying for the resulting medical expenses, so that Carol will be able to return to work. Wary of owing Melvin for this gesture and misunderstanding his reasons, Carol takes the train to his apartment in the middle of the night to tell him that she will not sleep with him.
In the meantime, Simon's assault and subsequent rehabilitation coupled with the fact that Verdell seems to actually prefer Melvin, causes him to lose his creative muse. His friends convince him that he should go to Baltimore and ask his estranged parents for money, but in order to do this, Simon needs Melvin to drive. Melvin invites Carol to accompany them on the trip to lessen the awkwardness between the two men and so he can court Carol romantically. She reluctantly accepts the invitation and relationships among the three develop.
At dinner in Baltimore, Melvin accidentally insults Carol's dress and she threatens to leave unless he pays her a compliment. He explains his condition to her and tells her that his doctor gave him the option of taking pills to see if they would control his obsessive compulsive disorder, but Melvin initially refused. The morning after Carol told him she would never sleep with him, he started taking the pills and he tells her "You make me want to be a better man." Carol, very flattered, starts warming up to him, but when he accidentally insults her again, she storms out of the restaurant and returns to the hotel and Simon.
While trying to sleep, Simon accidentally sees Carol taking a bath and he is inspired by her beauty to start drawing again. The two spend the night together creating art, with Carol modeling for him. When Melvin returns in the morning he assumes that Carol slept with Simon and even though proven wrong, the emotional distance between Melvin and Carol continues to grow.
After returning to New York City Carol tells Melvin that she doesn't want him in her life anymore because he only makes her feel bad about herself. She later regrets her statement and calls him to apologize. The relationship between Melvin and Carol remains complicated until Simon, who has moved in with Melvin until he can get a new apartment, convinces Melvin to declare his love for her at her apartment in Brooklyn, where the two realize the depth of their personal connection. Melvin admits that he considers her the "greatest woman in the world" because of her caring nature. The film ends with Melvin and Carol taking a walk at five in the morning together to buy fresh rolls at the corner bakery.
[edit] Primary cast
- Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall
- Helen Hunt as Carol Connelly
- Greg Kinnear as Simon Bishop
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Frank Sachs
- Julie Benz as the receptionist
- Shirley Knight as Beverly Connelly
- Skeet Ulrich as Vincent Lopiano
- Yeardley Smith as Jackie Simpson
- Lupe Ontiveros as Nora Manning
- Jill the Dog as Verdell
- Harold Ramis as Dr. Norman Bettes, MD
- Danielle Spencer as the Veterinarian
[edit] Reception
The film received generally positive reviews from film critics and was nominated for and received many film awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and a Golden Globe award for Best Picture-Music or Comedy. Metacritic, a web site that evaluates films by averaging its overall critical response, gave the film a metascore of 67, signifying generally favorable reviews.[2] The film's two lead actors, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, both received Academy and Golden Globe awards for their performances. Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that what director James Brooks "Manages to do with (the characters) as they struggle mightily to connect with one another is funny, painful, beautiful, and basically truthful--a triumph for everyone involved."[3]
However, praise for the film was not uniform among critics. Roger Ebert gave "As Good As it Gets," three stars (out of four) and called the film a "compromise, a film that forces a smile onto material that doesn't wear one easily," writing that the film drew "back to story formulas," but had good dialog and performances.[4]. Washington Post critic Desson Howe gave a generally negative review of the movie, writing that it "gets bogged down in sentimentality, while its wheels spin futilely in life-solving overdrive." [5]
As Good as It Gets was also a box office hit, opening at number three in the box office (behind Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies) with $12.6 million dollars,[6] and eventually earning over $148 million domestically and $341 million worldwide.[7] It is Jack Nicholson's second most lucrative film, behind Batman. [8]
[edit] Awards won
- Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson)
- Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Helen Hunt)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Helen Hunt)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Jack Nicholson)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
[edit] Award nominations
- Academy Award for Best Picture
- Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Greg Kinnear)
- Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (Mark Andrus & James L. Brooks)
- Academy Award for Film Editing (Richard Marks)
- Academy Award for Original Music Score (Hans Zimmer)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture (Greg Kinnear)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture (James L. Brooks)
- Golden Globe Award for Writing Original Screenplay (Mark Andrus & James L. Brooks)
- MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance (Helen Hunt)
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/71.asp
- ^ Metacritic Retrieved on January 7, 2009
- ^ Chicago Reader review. Retrieved on January 7, 2009
- ^ Roger Ebert review Retrieved on January 7, 2009
- ^ Washington Post review. Retrieved on January 7, 2009
- ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for December 26–28, 1997". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=1997&wknd=52&p=.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-06.
- ^ "As Good as It Gets". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=asgoodasitgets.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-06.
- ^ "Batman (1989)". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=batman.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-06.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: As Good as It Gets |
- As Good As It Gets at the Internet Movie Database
- As Good As It Gets at The New York Times
- "As Good As It Gets" at Rotten Tomatoes
- "As Good As It Gets" soundtrack review at Allmusic
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Evita |
Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 1997 |
Succeeded by Shakespeare in Love |
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||
