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Jaded tear jerker
by CarlosC (movies profile)
May 26, 2004
3
of
4 people found this review helpful
Jack Nicholson and Greg Kinnear star as unlike neighbors, brought together by unlikely circumstances, who find that their lives may be AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Nicholson won an Oscar for his role as an insufferable, self-centered, obsessive-compulsive writer who tortures his sensitive, gay neighbor (Kinnear) for kicks. Despite his endless put-downs and coarse exterior, Nicholson demonstrates a generous streak, paying the medical bills for the son of his favorite waitress (Helen Hunt) and helping Kinnear when he is down and out. Although the movie settles into romantic-comedy mode, tracking the on-again, off-again relationship between Nicholson and Hunt, the real story to watch is the reluctant friendship between Nicholson and Kinnear. Nicholson is in his usual form here, playing the obnoxious eccentric with almost unrelenting bravado. But, Kinnear manages to steal some of Nicholson's thunder with his stirring portrayal of a gay man reacting with dignity to his mean neighbor's taunts, while coping with misfortune after he is attacked and robbed. Hunt, who won an Oscar for playing the martyred mom, is largely overshadowed. As callous as Nicholson's character may be, everyone is plagued by some degree of neurosis in AS GOOD AS IT GETS. For instance, Hunt, who has the courage to stand up to Nicholson's bullying, ends up exhibiting an unusual dose of meanness towards Nicholson in the latter part of the film, and it is Nicholson who struggles, with humanity, to overcome his psychological impairment. Walking out of his psychiatrist's office one day, Nicholson taunts the waiting room patients, "What if this is as good as it gets?" The merit in this pathos-laced comedy is that it does not reduce its characters' pain to that one-liner. Their pain is real. For Hunt, it is the heart-break of caring for a sick child with limited means and trying to have a life, left over. For Kinnear, it is the struggle for identity and for acceptance as a gay man. For Nicholson, it is admitting pain and allowing himself to be vulnerable. Someone once said that comedy is our way to cope with life's suffering. AS GOOD AS IT GETS exemplifies the balance. One major complaint is that this movie is AS GOOD AS IT GETS at the end of act two, but loses ground with an ending too GOOD to be satisfying. The movie is a victim of its own success, having developed the characters realistically enough that we know that Nicholson and Hunt would not be long-term compatible. So, its storybook ending is suspect. GOOD WILL HUNTING (also 1997) contains a much better end for the romantic prospects of a maladjusted anti-social. Midway through the film, Nicholson tells Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man." That could have been the last line of the movie. (Carlos Colorado) |
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