As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Has an old-school, golden-age-of-cinema charm to it. The protagonist is a good man and the movie is entertaining enough, albeit a bit long. There are also a few loose ends that the movie doesn't adequately tackle, but ultimately I find there is more to like than dislike about the film.

There are a few distinct, primary issues with this film.The first thing is its attempt to create a sort of modern day fairy tale with an atmosphere bound in high emotion, drama and something of an epic frame, the film being so long over 2hours30min, and quite eventful. The story and chief concept were very interesting, and there is a lot of philosophy and idea in them, but the film never quite takes advantage of the platform it makes for itself and the emotional intensity feels rather constructed than genuine. Towards the end especially, it's just pushed down our throats too much and doesn't feel natural, or credible, and the most essential quality of emotion in cinema is credibility.Another thing about it is its over-the-top political/philosophical message, the whole bit about the legal system; that element seems overdone too, a bit of a sidetrack to the plot, and not necessarily inevitable.There's a taste of unfinished business, mismanaged tension, misused potential for emotion, and good plot elements that do not resolve into the anticipated climax. But it's a fine story, a fairly pleasant film to watch with good values, a certain essential candor, it is quite well played out considering the difficult premise, and then there's Jim Carey always there as the lead to help make any film more believable and endearing.6.5 or 7/10.

Square and simple-minded filmmaking. Jim Carrey plays a troubled b-movie screenwriter in 1951 Hollywood who suffers amnesia after smacking his head following an auto accident; he washes ashore on a picture-postcard coastal town full of lovable codgers and all-American townsfolk who believe he's a soldier thought dead after the war (the fit and well-scrubbed Carrey hardly looks like a battle-scarred war veteran!). Director Frank Darabont, working from a dewy screenplay by Michael Sloane, aims for no higher ambition than tugging at viewers' heartstrings; the two men pile on the presumed-need for warm nostalgia in attempt to make an emotional connection with a mass audience, when actually just some smart writing would suffice. There isn't a wet cinematic cliché that Sloane doesn't try to resurrect, while Carrey (reeling it in for prestige) drifts through the picture staring at everyone's top shirt button. The film isn't a disaster--it's handsomely made, and the car crash is amusingly carried off--but it's a ringer, a substitute for Preston Sturges. *1/2 from ****

Okay, yes, this film was predictable at times. But that doesn't change the fact that film is pretty much a masterpiece, and by far Jim Carrey's best performance.Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is a Hollywood screenwriter who is accused of being a communist by the HUAC because of a club he attended in college as a "horny young man" to impress a chick. He is put on the blacklist and loses his job at the studio. He decides to go for a drive, but gets in an accident and ends up in the small town of Lawson, California, where he is mistaken for a long-lost war hero. During this ordeal, he eventually learns what it means to protect our freedoms as an American, and how you need to enjoy life every step of the way. Carrey proves in this film that he REALLY CAN act, and Martin Landau and Laurie Holden are great too. A great film you will love for its message, even if it does get a tad predictable at times.3.5/4