As Good as It Gets
1997
****
Director: James L. Brooks
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Lisa Edelstein, Harve Presnell, Josh Mostel, Mark Andrus
A misanthropic and obsessive-compulsive romance novelist falls for a struggling single mother and waitress, but he is not easy to like, let alone love. James L. Brooks' romantic comedy is brilliantly written and acted, although Jack Nicholson's racist and homophobic character hasn't aged all that well. The central couple only really get together in the end, which is refreshing, but perhaps they could have done it in less than 140 minutes. Nicholson and Hunt both won Academy Awards for their terrific performances.
