Sick Product of a Sick System

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Audrey Hepburn is really delicious, as do Rex Harrison. Frederick Loewe's music is beautiful, the movie is long. But, due to the charm of the two actors, it is being watched with pleasure.

Good things: Beautiful sets, decent songs, ok performances, Higgins is fairly funny, and an easy to follow story.Bad things: WAY too long, useless songs especially from the dad, Audrey Hepburn has one of the worst voices of all time in the fist half of the movie (I know this is on purpose, but my god), and Higgins is a huge ass.My biggest and worst complaint about this fine movie, is that the run time is bloated with useless musical numbers, this is a 1hr 50min movie tops, but because of Bollywood type musical numbers it (like a Bollywood movie) is bloated to 2hrs 50mins. I think it's perfectly fine, but with heavy flaws.

(Flash Review)This WON EIGHT Oscars. I didn't realize it was a musical; 2hr 50min one at that. I'm not a big musical guy and watched this because I've always heard so much about it so now I can check it off. This must have been a stage play converted to film as the film sets felt very theatrical. The core story is high class gentleman agrees to a bet that he can take a gutter garbage woman (pretty close to the film's description) and turn her into someone who can blend into high class society. By teaching her how to speak properly and with an articulate vocabulary in addition to manners and attire. Mix in a love story amongst a variety of singing pieces that do advance the story and build out character depth. The dialog was clever, quick and snappy and some sets and costumes were elegant and grand. It did feel long, not overly engrossing and not in my movie wheelhouse.

I bought this at a yard sale in 2013, kept putting it off thinking, "Aacck! Look how long it is! Singing and wacky accents! I should call the dentist and see if he can bump up that root canal!" I finally slapped it on...and I loved it! Rex Harrison's way of sing/talking, perfect! My favorite character: Colonel Pickering. Wilfred Hyde-White, that guy was great, a real scene stealer.Never before understood the allure of Audrey Hepburn...until now! Yeah, I'd seen Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Wait Until Dark, all many years ago. Maybe too many years ago, now I have a greater appreciation of classic movies. She's absolutely adorable in this movie, and that one scene when she walks out dressed for the ball...jaw, meet floor! Surprised I knew half the songs already. But it has been around awhile, plenty of time to become an iconic musical. It was great, check it out if you can.