As Good As It Gets

Starring in a James L. Brooks film is about as good as it gets: Terms of Endearment snagged Oscar noms for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor; Broadcast News for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor; and his latest took another trio of nominations, with stars Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt taking home the gold statues. Nicholson is in fine fettle as Melvin Udall, a bigoted, obsessive-compulsive, romance novelist (!), who harasses, befriends and eventually falls in love with a waitress (Hunt) who has a sick kid. When he's not giving poor Hunt the business, Melvin enjoys such extracurricular sports as gay-bashing (with Greg Kinnear as the recipient) and bigotry (Cuba Gooding, Jr. takes the brunt here). Offensive schmaltz? Yes it is, and it's a major testament to Brooks' brilliant--if occasionally misguided--screenwriting that the film manages to succeed despite some pretty pointless mean-spiritedness (did anyone really think the Oscar night clip of Nicholson brutally berating a Latino woman was funny? I sure didn't.) As Good As It Gets could have been better without the wince-inducing cheapshots; still, it's pretty darn good as it is. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)