| As Good as It Gets | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
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| 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 Yeardley Smith Lupe Ontiveros |
| 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 American romantic 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 homosexual 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 |
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. 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 as he simultaneously gains more attention from Carol. When Carol decides to get a job closer to Brooklyn so she can spend more time with her acutely asthmatic son, Melvin arranges to pay for her son's medical expenses, albeit for his own selfish reasons. Wary of owing Melvin for this gesture, 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. Having no medical insurance, mounting hospital bills and facing eviction from his apartment due to unpaid rent, 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.
After returning to New York City, Carol tells Melvin that she doesn't want him in her life anymore. 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. The film ends with Melvin and Carol taking a walk together to buy fresh rolls at the corner bakery.
| As Good as It Gets | |
|---|---|
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| Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and various artists | |
| Released | 13 January, 1998 |
| Label | Sony Records |
The OST feaures instrumental pieces composed by Hans Zimmer and songs by various artists.
Track listing
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,[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]
The quote "What happened to your queer party-friends?" was sampled in the Dirt Nasty song "1980".
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Evita |
Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 1997 |
Succeeded by Shakespeare in Love |
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| As Good as It Gets | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James L. Brooks |
| Produced by | Laura Ziskin |
| Screenplay by |
Mark Andrus James L. Brooks |
| Story by | Mark Andrus |
| Starring |
Jack Nicholson Helen Hunt Greg Kinnear Cuba Gooding, Jr. Shirley Knight Skeet Ulrich Yeardley Smith Lupe Ontiveros |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Editing by | Richard Marks |
| Studio | Gracie Films |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1997 |
| Running time | 139 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50 million[1] |
| Gross revenue | $314,178,011[1] |
As Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy drama film directed by James L. Brooks and produced by Laura Ziskin. It stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic, obsessive-compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt as a single mother with an asthmatic son, and Greg Kinnear as a homosexual artist. The screenplay was written by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks.
The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress. It is the second film of the 1990s to win both of these awards, following The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, and is currently the last film to have won both acting categories. It is ranked 140th on Empire magazine's "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list.[2]
Contents |
Melvin Udall is a 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. 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 as he simultaneously gains more attention from Carol. When Carol decides to get a job closer to Brooklyn so she can spend more time with her acutely asthmatic son (Jesse James), Melvin arranges to pay for her son's medical expenses, albeit for his own selfish reasons. Wary of owing Melvin for this gesture, 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. Having no medical insurance, mounting hospital bills and facing eviction from his apartment due to unpaid rent, his friends convince him that he should go to Baltimore and ask his estranged parents for money. However, 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.
After returning to New York City, Carol tells Melvin that she doesn't want him in her life anymore. She later regrets her statement and calls him to apologize. The relationship between Melvin and Carol remains complicated until Simon, whom Melvin has allowed to move in with him 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. The film ends with Melvin and Carol taking a walk together to buy fresh rolls at the corner bakery.
| As Good as It Gets | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and various artists | |
| Released | 13 January, 1998 |
| Label | Sony Records |
The soundtrack features instrumental pieces composed by Hans Zimmer and songs by various artists.
Track listing
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. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 85% of professional critics have given the film a positive review based on 75 reviews.[3] Metacritic, a web site that evaluates films by averaging its overall critical response, gave the film a metascore of 67, signifying generally favorable reviews.[4] 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."[5]
However, praise for the film was not uniform among critics. Roger Ebert gave the film 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.[6] 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." [7]
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,[8] and eventually earning over $148 million domestically and $314 million worldwide.[1] It is Jack Nicholson's second most lucrative film, behind Batman.[9]
| Organization | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Jack Nicholson | Won |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role | Helen Hunt | Won | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Greg Kinnear | Nominated | |
| Best Editing | Richard Marks | Nominated | |
| Best Picture | James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson and Kristi Zea | Nominated | |
| Best Original Score – Musical or Comedy | Hans Zimmer | Nominated | |
| Best Screenplay – Original | Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks | Nominated | |
| ALMA Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Film | Lupe Ontiveros | Nominated |
| Chlotrudis Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Helen Hunt | Nominated |
| Czech Lions | Best Foreign Language Film | James L. Brooks | Nominated |
| GLAAD Media Awards | Outstanding Film – Wide Release | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role – Musical or Comedy | Jack Nicholson | Won |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role – Musical or Comedy | Helen Hunt | Won | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Greg Kinnear | Nominated | |
| Best Director | James L. Brooks | Nominated | |
| Best Film – Musical or Comedy | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks | Nominated | |
| MTV Movie Awards | Best Performance – Female | Helen Hunt | Won |
| Satellite Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role – Musical or Comedy | Jack Nicholson | Won |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role – Musical or Comedy | Helen Hunt | Won | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Musical or Comedy | Cuba Gooding, Jr. | Nominated | |
| Greg Kinnear | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Musical or Comedy | Shirley Knight | Nominated | |
| Best Film – Musical or Comedy | James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson and Kristi Zea | Won | |
| Guild | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Cinema Editors | Best Edited Film | Richard Marks | Nominated |
| Casting Society of America | Best Casting – Comedy Film | Francine Maisler | Nominated |
| Directors Guild of America | Outstanding Directing – Motion Pictures | James L. Brooks | Nominated |
| Motion Picture Sound Editors | Best Sound Editing – Music (Domestic and Foreign) | Nominated | |
| Producers Guild of America | Motion Picture Producer of the Year | James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson and Kristi Zea | Nominated |
| Screen Actors Guild | Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role | Jack Nicholson | Won |
| Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role | Greg Kinnear | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role | Helen Hunt | Won | |
| Writers Guild of America | Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen | Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks | Won |
| Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: As Good as It Gets |
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