Movie Review: A Good Woman (2004)

Genre: Romantic Dramedy  

Director: Mike Barker  

Starring: Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson  

Running Time: 93 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, professional mistress Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) runs out of other-women's-husbands willing to fund her lifestyle. She relocates to Amalfi in Italy, and joins a wealthy and gossipy English community including newlyweds Meg and Robert Windermere (Scarlett Johansson and Mark Umbers). The dashing Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore) intends to seduce Meg, and finds an opening when Mrs. Erlynne occupies Robert's attention. Meanwhile, the exceptionally rich and many-times-divorced Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson) believes he can finally find happiness with Mrs. Erlynne.

What Works Well: This adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan benefits from picturesque Italian locations occupied by the idle rich, and attractive 1930s-era sets, costumes, hairstyles, and make-up. Tom Wilkinson as Tuppy delivers a wistful performance as a soft-at-heart man who has everything except a worthy life companion. Director Mike Barker hustles events along at a brisk pace, and the central twist adds zest.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot only works with a base level of across-the-board obtuse behaviour. Neither Helen Hunt nor Scarlett Johansson appear fully comfortable in their roles, and apart from Wilkinson, the other male actors mechanically go through the motions. Delivered by a hovering Greek chorus of secondary gossipers, the script is over-burdened with Wilde's witticisms, with most landing as self-satisfied clutter.

Key Quote:

Mrs. Erlynne: If we're always guided by other people's thoughts, what's the point of having our own?

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Movie Review: Ride (2014)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Helen Hunt  

Starring: Helen Hunt, Luke Wilson, Brenton Thwaites  

Running Time: 93 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Jackie (Helen Hunt) is a divorced magazine editor, over-involved in the life of her college-aged son Angelo (Brenton thwaites) and eager for him to become a writer. Fed-up with his mother's controlling behaviour,  Angelo drops out of college and relocates to Los Angeles to become a surfer. Jackie follows and takes up surfing to better connect with her son, and on the beach she meets Ian (Luke Wilson), who becomes a coach and romantic partner.

What Works Well: This mother-son drama benefits from a robust arc for Helen Hunt's character, reacting to an earlier family tragedy and a marriage break-up by smothering her son. Her subsequent journey to letting go encompasses moments of humour and romance soaked in the laid-back California sun.

What Does Not Work As Well: A good chunk of the running time is occupied with Helen Hunt falling off her surf board. Character definitions are neglected, with Luke Wilson's Ian reduced to shallow nothingness, and Jackie's ex-husband and his family rendered irrelevant. The writing reaches for edgy but often lands in painfully contrived theatricality. Other than a few swear words, this qualifies as a mediocre television movie.

Conclusion: Fall.

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Movie Review: Soul Surfer (2011)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Sean McNamara  

Starring: AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood  

Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: In Hawaii, Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) was born with a love for competitive surfing. She is home educated by her loving parents Cheri and Thomas (Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid), and enjoys a life-long friendship with fellow-surfer Alana (Lorraine Nicholson). In 2003, 13 year-old Bethany is winning amateur competitions and about to turn pro when she loses an arm in a shark attack. Despite the setback, she is determined to resume competitive surfing.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, Bethany Hamilton's story is wholesome, inspirational, and capable of scaling emotional peaks. Director Sean McNamara gives the faith-based elements due prominence, with Carrie Underwood appearing as a church youth leader, but most of the focus in on a young woman dealing with a most unexpected personal trauma. The harrowing shark attack and its immediate aftermath are handled with shocking elegance, before the drama shifts towards emotional recovery and reset. Passable special effects are used to obscure AnnaSophia Robb's post-attack arm, while gorgeous cinematography enlivens the frequent surfing scenes.

What Does Not Work As Well: An army of writers contributed to the script, resulting in predictably cringey tonal choppiness. While AnnaSophia Robb grows into the role, the adult acting oscillates between competent and one-take expediency.

Conclusion: Rides the waves with humble swagger.



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Movie Review: I See You (2019)

Genre: Suspense Crime Mystery Drama

Director: Adam Randall

Starring: Helen Hunt, Jon Tenney, Judah Lewis

Running Time: 96 Minutes

Synopsis: In a suburban community, married couple Jackie and Greg Harper (Helen Hunt and Jon Tenney) are dealing with the aftermath of her infidelity while their teenaged son Connor (Judah Lewis) broods. When a 10 year old boy goes missing, Greg, a local police detective, starts to investigate. He uncovers evidence pointing to similarities with a disturbing serial child abductor case from 15 years prior. Meanwhile, strange and inexplicable events start to happen in the Harper household.

What Works Well: Writer Devon Graye creates a menacing environment for a family in turmoil subjected to weird occurrences, and after a traditional first half, shift gears and perspectives to upend expectations. A couple of additional curves await, and director Adam Randall maintains control with a deft mix of suspense, a few jump scares, and sure narrative handling. The camerawork is expansive, and an audacious soundtrack adds personality.

What Does Not Work As Well: The opening introductory act is necessary, but overly familiar. Key character motivations are confined to minimum levels, encouraging a search for logic gaps.

Conclusion: A shrewd and stylish mystery sustained by effective twists.



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Movie Review: The Night Clerk (2020)

A crime drama and character study, The Night Clerk tantalizes with some intriguing potential but after a bright start loses steam instead of building momentum. 

Bart Bromley (Tye Sheridan) is a socially awkward 23 year old with Asperger's syndrome, working as an overnight hotel clerk and living with his mother Ethel (Helen Hunt). He voyeuristically snoops on hotel guests through hidden miniature cameras, using mimicry to improve his conversational skills. Through his cameras Bart witnesses an escalating argument involving hotel guest Karen and an unknown man. He rushes to the scene but when the police arrive Karen is dead and Bart is a potential suspect. 

He hides the video evidence from Detective Espada (John Leguizamo), who does not have enough evidence to make an arrest despite pressure from Karen's husband Nick. Relocated to another hotel, Bart meets guest Andrea Rivera (Ana de Armas), who appears lonely and treats him kindly. Bart is love struck, but Andrea is hiding her own secrets.

An independent production written and directed by Michael Cristofer, the first act of The Night Clerk carries promising echoes of a small scale Rear Window. A disadvantaged man passes the time observing others, only to witness a crime and become embroiled in the dangerous affairs of strangers. But while the opening third is engaging, the middle sags and the ending is clumsy, Cristofer unable to sustain the early impetus despite a crisp running time of just 90 minutes.

The context-setting, characters introductions and premise of voyeurism as a learning tool are all sharply delivered. But after the murder is committed, the crime investigation elements are incongruously neutralized to allow Bart and Andrea to get to know each other. The tone transition defangs the drama and sucks energy out of the narrative. Cristofer eventually cycles back to the antagonists and the investigation, but the conclusion is both rushed and bungled, and arrives too late to reignite thrust. Some key character relationships apparently primed for surprise reveals are also easy to spot. 

In a committed performance Tye Sheridan captures quirky awkwardness within Asperger's mannerisms, and introduces measures of pathos as Bart experiences the full force of first infatuation. Ana de Armas enjoys a few complex scenes as Andrea questions her actions and motives, but the supporting cast remains stiff.

The Night Clerk stays awake, but it's an uneven shift.



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Movie Review: The Miracle Season (2018)

A sports drama based on a true story, The Miracle Season is overloaded with honest intentions and weighed down with almost unbearable predictability.

In Iowa City, the West High School girls' volleyball team are the defending state champions, coached by the dour but respected Kathy "Bres" Bresnahan (Helen Hunt). The energetic, vivacious  and well-loved Caroline "Line" Found (Danika Yarosh) is their spark plug, setter and captain. Kelley Fliehler (Erin Moriarty) is Line's best friend and an average member of the team.

Line remains upbeat despite a season-opening loss to their rivals from City High, but tragedy strikes and Line is killed in a moped accident. Line's father Dr. Ernie Found (William Hurt) suffers a double blow when his wife Ellyn also dies after a long illness. The school community is devastated and the volleyball team members cannot even bring themselves to practice. Bres has to find a way to rally the team, and Kelley will need to find inner strength to step out from the shadow of her departed friend.

There is no doubt that the story of a team's triumph emerging from the tragedy of their star's death is inspirational. And The Miracle Season does many things right, with director Sean McNamara conjuring up plenty of poignant and tear-inducing moments. The opening 20 minutes in particular effectively establish Caroline's infectious personality, a petite girl bursting with an irresistible love for life and capable of filling the entire school building and then some with her confident and playful attitude.

And the film's positive, wholesome and healthy message for girls, almost all of whom behave impeccably towards each other throughout, is to be lauded.

All of which makes most of the rest of the film an unfortunate disappointment. With the outcome confirmed in the title, once Line leaves the movie the predictable decline and rebirth of the volleyball team's fortunes unfolds with utmost predictability. To overcome the strictly linear narrative The Miracle Season sorely needed more character depth to latch onto, but it is Line's spirit that remains the one dominant presence. Coach Bres, new captain Kelley and Line' father Dr. Ernie are never more than sketched in as people, while Kelley's teammates are particularly shortchanged, remaining largely interchangeable and never emerging from the background.

The on-court volleyball action is decent but also repetitive, occupying screen time that may have been better invested in characters. The Miracle Season carries worthwhile messages of self-belief, perseverance in the face of devastating doubt, and a community coming together to rise above, but as a cinematic experience, it lacks the smash.

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Movie Review: The Sessions (2012)

A drama about overcoming physical disability to satisfy a basic human need, The Sessions cannot move much beyond its basic premise.

Berkeley, California, in 1988. Aspiring poet Mark O'Brien (John Hawkes) lives most of his life in an iron lung, his muscles rendered fairly useless due to complications from polio. Mark functions in society thanks to the help of full time caretakers, but grows increasingly desperate to have sex. He consults with his priest Father Brendan (William H. Macy), before connecting with professional sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene (Helen Hunt).

Cheryl commits to working with Mark over six sessions. He gradually gets used to being touched and controlling his arousal, and works his way towards an ability to have intercourse. But there are emotional complications ahead, both between Mark and Cheryl and between Cheryl and her husband.

Directed and written by Ben Lewin based on the article by O'Brien, The Sessions is a small intimate story, and that is both its charm and its limitation. The desires of one man to experience the joy of sex and his subsequent encounters with a sex surrogate are intriguing, but provide constrained scope for a cinematic experience. Apart from featuring frank depictions of sexual mechanics, the story of The Sessions could have been told in a 15 minute television segment with no loss of impact.

The padding is apparent, and extends to quite useless side-stories involving Mark's caretakers, a predictable but nevertheless prolonged journey to the land where sex and love become confused dance partners, and some unconvincing attempts to capture the impact of the relationship on Cheryl's already unusual family life. The scenes featuring Mark providing a startled Father Brendan with a play-by-play describing the quest to lose his virginity inject some humour but also become repetitive.

The two leads almost salvage the film. John Hawkes delivers a physically punishing performance, mainly prostrate with his body painfully deformed. Helen Hunt was nominated for an Academy Award, seemingly as a reward for embracing nudity as a matter-of-fact business requirement.

The courage on show in The Sessions is mildly uplifting, but the film otherwise carries next to no lasting resonance.

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Movie Review: Cast Away (2000)

A distressing yet uplifting survival drama, Cast Away is an irresistible story of one man who loses everything except his life, and has to find the willingness to endure an unimaginable ordeal.

Based in Memphis, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a middle-aged FedEx manager, dedicated to work and worshiping the clock as he globe trots to help FedEx employees in far-flung corners of the world get better at delivering parcels on time. With Christmas approaching, Chuck proposes to his long-time girlfriend and love of his life Kelly (Helen Hunt), and boards a FedEx plane for a transpacific flight. The plane hits severe weather, diverts course and then ditches into the ocean; Chuck is the only survivor, and his life raft drifts onto a small uninhabited island in the South Pacific.

Completely alone and with no rescue in sight, Chuck has to survive by starting with the basics, including finding water, food, shelter and fire. Every step on the way to daily survival is a struggle, and every achievement, like opening a fruit or finally starting a fire, takes an inordinate amount of time and is a major victory. He also collects FedEx packages from the wreckage that wash up on the beach, and eventually yields to the need to open them. The contents aid his survival efforts, and a Wilson volleyball becomes his only companion. Time passes slowly, but Chuck's desire to somehow return to civilization remains strong.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by William Broyles, Jr., Cast Away is a gripping survival story told with plenty of warmth. The film steers clear of any unnecessary drama and theatrics, and sticks close to a powerful central premise: how would a middle-aged, slightly pudgy man, used to all the comforts of modern civilization, survive on his own in the wilderness?

Chuck is not a scientist nor an outdoorsman. He does not know the first thing about survival skills, and this ordinariness is what makes Cast Away compelling. Broyles keeps the fight even and fair: the new environment presents no unusual threats. The worst that the island offers is severe rainstorms and total isolation. There are no wild animals, dangerous tribesmen or even deadly insects, just a generally docile piece of beach, rock and forest jutting out of the ocean, that Chuck now needs to turn into a home.

The theme of time is central to Chuck's story. A man used to measuring life's success and failure by the minute, and who defines achievement by the daily on-time delivery of millions of packages across the world, is now forced to confront the fact that prying open a piece of stubborn tropical fruit will take a day of his time, and lighting a fire will require a lot longer than that. His life is stripped down to the essentials of survival, bereft of most tools that he takes for granted. Suddenly time takes on a new meaning: he is in a race to secure the necessities of life, and failure is not a corporate reputational risk, but a matter of real and personal living and dying.

Tom Hanks is on his own for the majority of the 143 minutes of running time, and he owns the screen, starting out as a confident manager, then a disoriented crash victim, and finally a man carving out a new definition of existence. Hanks is fully believable in every phase, and undergoes a remarkable physical transformation to reflect the impact of his island ordeal.

Zemeckis finds many highlights, including a stunning airplane crash sequence, a triumph with the rediscovery of fire, and interaction between Chuck and Wilson that creates a remarkable sidekick character out of a volleyball. The closing chapter drags a bit, but Chuck does deserve the appropriate time to reflect on what life can now offer. The Don Burgess cinematography is vivid and brings the island and the ocean to glorious life, while Alan Silvestri contributes a music score than is affecting if a bit schmaltzy.

Cast Away is both a heartbreaking story of loss, and a marvelous celebration of the human ability to adapt and survive even in traumatic conditions.

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The Movies Of Helen Hunt

All movies starring Helen Hunt and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Stealing Home (1988)

Twister (1996)

As Good As It Gets (1997)

What Women Want (2000)

Cast Away (2000)

A Good Woman (2004)

Soul Surfer (2011)

The Sessions (2012)

Ride (2014)

The Miracle Season (2018)

I See You (2019)

The Night Clerk (2020)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie review: What Women Want (2000)

A romantic comedy with a supernatural spin, What Women Want enjoys impressive star power but rides roughshod over its clever premise and fumbles the search for an attractive tone.

Advertising executive Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a magnet for the ladies but treats them with dismissive disdain. Divorced from Gigi (Lauren Holly) and an absentee dad to his 15 year old daughter Alex (Ashley Johnson), Nick is shocked when he is passed over for a promotion. Instead, his boss Dan Wanamaker (Alan Alda) hires Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) to lead the creative team, in an attempt to reorient the firm's ad campaigns to better appeal to women.

While trying on women's products to get in touch with his feminine side, Nick suffers an electrocution accident, and gains the supernatural ability to hear the inner thoughts of women. After first panicking and visiting therapist Dr. Perkins (an uncredited Bette Midler), Nick starts to use his new powers to advance his career. He gains inspiration from the hidden thoughts and feelings of women around him, and starts to steal Darcy's ideas to enhance his credentials on women-oriented campaigns. But Nick and Darcy also start to fall in love, complicating his attempts to undermine her performance.

What Women Want playfully tackles the age-old topic of men wishing they could better understand women. The premise has plenty of potential, and the film enjoys moments of good humour, befuddlement and personal awakening as Nick hears the inner thoughts of new boss Darcy, daughter Alex, barista Lola (Marisa Tomei) and office girl Erin (Judy Greer).

But director Nancy Meyers frequently bludgeons the film towards the ridiculous, encouraging Gibson to overact to distraction. Whenever there is a choice between subtle and stupid, Meyers chooses the low road, aiming for the broad laugh and glaring emotion when a more astute direction was available. The film hurtles towards the obvious, and in its rush misses opportunities to delve into gender issues with sensitivity. Thanks to a tonally challenged script, the workplace tensions between Nick and Darcy don't work as planned. What is intended to be competitive comes across as collaborative, undermining the latter part of the film's dynamic. With the romance between Nick and Darcy also difficult to digest, the better moments are in the subplots with Alex and Erin.

Nick's powers allow him to try and bridge the generational divide with his daughter, and several moments in the father-daughter journey bravely delve into awkward territory. Even more promising, but less developed, is Nick suddenly becoming aware of Erin's depressed state as an effectively invisible woman shuffling files within the office, wondering whether anywhere cares if she is even alive. Through Erin's story the film hints at important issues related to gender gaps and power dynamics in the workplace, and with more courage, Meyers could have better explored this territory.

Much less successful is the subplot involving Lola the frustrated barista, which is introduced, developed and then truncated with heavy-handed clumsiness, Marisa Tomei emerging as the film's main casualty.

With Frank Sinatra classics dominating the soundtrack and adding to the triple-underline attitude of the film, What Women Want places the delivery burden on Gibson and Hunt to bring the film home. The two attractive stars make the most of the material but are only rarely able to steer in thought-provoking directions. What Women Want poses good questions, but provides answers that are more frivolous fun and less fascinating flavour.

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Movie Review: Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

A time travel comedy romance, Peggy Sue Got Married is an amicable journey into the world of second chances.

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is an unwilling participant in her high school's 25-year reunion, but she is prodded to attend by daughter Beth (Helen Hunt). Peggy Sue's marriage to high school sweetheart Charlie (Nicolas Cage) has fallen apart, with Charlie cheating on her after having abandoned ambitions of a musical career to become a cheesy electronics salesman. At the reunion Peggy Sue catches up with old friends and classmates, including Richard (Barry Miller) who used to be the school's outcast nerd but is now a successful businessman. No one at the reunion knows the whereabouts of Michael (Kevin J. O'Connor), the dreamy and athletic class idealist.

After being anointed reunion queen, Peggy Sue faints and wakes up 25 years in the past, a few days before her 18th birthday. Her relationship with Charlie is on shaky ground, and although he is full of love, passion and promise, with her knowledge of the future, Peggy Sue cools towards him. She establishes a warmer friendship with Richard, and boldly sidles up to the aloof Michael, resulting in one memorable night. With the ability to make different decisions about the rest of her life, Peggy Sue tries to define what the right choices should look like.

After the time-travel-to-the-1950s success of Back To The Future (1984) and the boost of 1960's nostalgia provided by The Big Chill (1983), Peggy Sue Got Married straddles the two and lands in 1960. But rather than the broad comedy of DeLoreans-as-time-machines-powered-by-lightning or the examination of a generation losing touch with its principles, Peggy Sue Got Married is a more intimate, personal experience. One person, one unlikely opportunity to make a few different decisions and change the entire trajectory of a life that has seemingly turned miserable. What will Peggy Sue do?

In one of his smaller, more restrained outings, director Francis Ford Coppola keeps the mood light and the spirits high. Once she is transported back in time, Peggy Sue takes her predicament in stride, and settles down to life as an 18 year old teenager with all the benefits that come from 25 additional years of experience. She immediately senses the opportunity to do things differently, and to interact on a mature level with her parents (Barbara Harris and Don Murray) and sister (a young Sofia Coppola, already displaying the wooden delivery that would steer her to directing rather than acting).

And at school, free from the clique mind-set of her younger self, she breaks out of her peer group and rectifies two regrets by reaching out to the geeky Richard and the dark Michael. Although her actions in connecting with outcasts serve her ego, she also helps both boys become better men. And by looking again at a young, ambitious and talented Charlie, Peggy Sue experiences again what attracted her to him, and the dangers of a young love that she now knows will go astray.

Kathleen Turner, around 32 years old at the time of filming, transitions easily from a middle-aged woman going through a marriage crisis to a teenager enjoying a life of dates, parties, and exam failures. She gives the young Peggy Sue the sarcastic smarts that only come from a life of painful mistakes, much to the befuddlement of parents, teachers and classmates. Turner was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.

Nicolas Cage, Coppola's nephew and a decade younger than Turner, spends most of the movie as the young Charlie, and delivers his typical messy intensity, this time buffeted by a girlfriend who seems suddenly more self-assured and less entranced by his big dreams of artistic success. Jim Carrey, Joan Allen and Maureen O'Sullivan have small roles in the impressively deep cast.

Peggy Sue Got Married arrives at an understated conclusion, consistent with the tone of the movie. Small changes make a big difference, and big decisions can be accommodated with heart, rather than a backlash.

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Movie Review: Twister (1996)

With awe-inspiring special effects undermined by a childish script and hackneyed love triangle, Twister is only tolerable when all the characters shut-up and the twisters are allowed to roar.

Former expert storm chaser Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) is settling down to a career as a television weatherman, and about to marry Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz). He just needs to finalize his divorce papers from first wife and former storm-chasing partner Jo Harding (Helen Hunt), who still leads a ramshackle tornado chasing team. Jo has a burning passion to improve the science of predicting tornadoes, having lost her dad to a twister when she was a child. What should be Bill's final quick visit to Jo's camp turns into a wild storm-chasing adventure when a series of wild twisters descend onto the landscape.

Bill's old competitive juices are reignited, not to mention his lust for Jo, as he leaves Melissa twisting in the wind and joins Jo's crew as they attempt to place a new scientific device in a twister's path to gain valuable scientific data about the innards of tornadoes. Competing with them is a well-funded research team led by Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), who used to be part of Bill's crew before going corporate.

Helen Hunt does her best to carry the acting load, but even she struggles with a script (by Michael Crichton and Ann-Marie Martin) written at Grade 5 level and assembling the most puerile of plot elements and throwing them together with no attempt at sophistication. The Jo / Bill / Melissa triangle is a candidate for the most contrived - and physically annoying - romantic entanglement ever placed on the screen, while the mostly faceless Jonas team motoring along in their black motorcade check off every trite and overused "bad guys" stereotype in the beginner's guide to writing screenplays.

Bill Paxton is far from ready to carry the male lead in a big budget production, and his performance is firmly bogged down in stiff daytime soap quality. Cary Elwes is even worse, and his battle against stock antagonist mannerisms is lost in his first scene. Philip Seymour Hoffman, in a predictable but at least entertaining role as an unkempt member of Jo's team, is left to add some supporting colour.

Twister is much better whenever the storms move in and the chase teams gun their engines and start to race towards the path of destruction, attempting to get as close as possible without getting swept up into the swirling debris. The tornado special effects are powerful, loud, impressive and immersive, director Jan de Bont clearly in his element brushing his cast up against momentous disaster. Twister's final 30 minutes is one long chase of a massive, destructive series of tornadoes, and the film finally hits its stride, the true star of the show proving to be the Industrial Light and Magic special effects crew.

But in this case the special effects just make Twister watchable, not necessarily enjoyable. The film's soul is a swirling emptiness lost in the middle of a large tornado.

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Movie Review: As Good As It Gets (1997)

A story of romance between two people on the edge, As Good As It Gets is a thoughtful look at what it takes to uncover the warmth beneath complex, harried and damaged souls. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt shine as agitated New Yorkers wrapped up in their lives, not looking for love but finding it flickering under the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Melvin Udall (Nicholson) is a New York-based writer. He is also intolerably obsessive-compulsive, racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic. Melvin lives in an apartment building, where his neighbour is gay artist Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear), who has a black marketing agent Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). Simon and Frank take the brunt of Melvin's insufferable behaviour, as does Simon's dog Verdell.

Melvin's fanatical routine includes eating breakfast daily as the same restaurant, sitting at the same table, and getting served by the same waitress, Carol Connelly (Hunt). A poor single mom of a sickly child, Carol in the only person who can tolerate Melvin, and in turn, he recognizes that he is dependant on her. When Carol starts skipping work to look after her son Spencer (Jesse James), Melvin arranges to pay for high quality medical care to stabilize Spencer's condition, so that Carol can return to work and serve him breakfast.

Simon is brutally mugged, and Frank insists that Melvin take care of Verdell, but Melvin's growing fondness for Carol prompts him to start taking his medication to improve his social skills, and he starts to cope better around people (and dogs). Melvin's relationship with Carol evolves slowly, with his deeply ingrained suspicion of people clumsily colliding with her desperate need for intimacy. Eventually Melvin, the battered Simon and Carol head out on a road trip to visit Simon's parents, and both Melvin and Carol need to confront their true emotions towards themselves and each other.

Under the direction of James L. Brooks, As Good As It Gets shines as a study of two desperately lost souls whose destinies collide over bacon and eggs, with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both receiving best acting Academy Awards. Nicholson pulls out one of his most memorable performances to bring Melvin to life, a man deeply aware of his failings but standing just short of being able to address them, until he sees first in Verdell and then in Carol a reason to risk radical change. Nicholson makes impressive use of pauses, his eyes beaming with what he needs to say in order to join humanity's norms, but his mouth only able to spout the poison that creates a lonely vacuum around him.

Hunt is impressively equal to Nicholson, and rises to the challenge posed by the script (co-written by Mark Andrus and Brooks): it would have been too easy for Carol to be all-good opposite Melvin's radical offensiveness. Instead, Carol has deep-rooted issues of her own, and her desperation for companionship and a true partner in life allows her as many opportunities as Melvin to take painful missteps in their stuttering relationship.

Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding, Jr. add memorably chaotic New York life to Melvin's surroundings, while Shirley Knight as Carol's mom is instrumental in steering her daughter towards some painful but necessary decisions.

As Good As It Gets suffers from some bloating at close to 140 minutes for a romance, and Brooks could have benefited from sharper decisions in the editing room. Some realism is also sacrificed with the speed of Melvin's transition from reclusive and repugnant to half-way cuddlesome. But whenever either Nicholson or Hunt are on-screen the momentum is maintained, and As Good As It Gets proves to be plenty good enough.

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