135 - As Good as It Gets

    A man with a mental condition (never exactly disclosed, but some anti-social behaviors, as well as plenty of OCD) gets involved with a waitress, and his gay neighbor.  His adventures help make him learn how to function a little more normally.
    I first saw this movie on VHS.  It wasn't a compelling summary.  I came back to the movie a few times.  I finally decided to buy this movie on Blu-ray, which was absurd.  It's released through a company called Twilight Time, which puts out very limited runs of movies.  In this case, 3,000 copies.  This is completely dumb.  It also allows them to charge a premium - $30 apiece!  This is a movie that won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, and three Satellite Awards.  It was also the second most successful picture of Nicholson's career!
    The script is written by James L. Brooks, who I mostly know from his work on The Simpsons.  It's  a very good script.  Maybe it's a little too good.
    By this, I mean that there are too many moments where how fantastically witty some characters are seems to be highlighted.  And those moments draw me out of the movie.
    Nicholson is the clear star of the movie.  While Helen Hunt also won Best Actress for this, I find her mildly annoying.  I don't know how to explain that, because she comes across realistically, but she also seems like the sort of person I would find annoying in real life.  So I suppose she handled the role perfectly.
    Nicholson's Melvin is wonderful, mostly because he gets most of the good jokes.  He's delightfully cruel, and even when he's being offensive, he seems to be aware of it, but he relies on the shock value of being cruel.
    As I watch it, I also become aware of how much longer the movie is than it needs to be.  I don't think the problem is actually the length, but it's the pacing.  It doesn't feel like the movie jumps around as quickly as I'd like it to, but this is most likely because so much of the movie is focused on the acting.