AS GOOD AS IT GETS (47)

Directed by: James L. Brooks

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear

The Pitch: Three people, all of them troubled and unhappy, start off hating but end up helping each other.

Theo Sez: Who can explain the huge success of this sluggish, heavy-handed, seemingly endless movie? It's determinedly gritty, a semi-comedy at best, not pulling any punches in establishing its characters' messy, unhappy lives (even if it means, as someone puts it, "just a little too much reality for a Friday night") ; none of which is remotely a problem, except that it's also awash in self-pity. Everyone's a victim here - Kinnear's character of homophobia, Hunt's of poverty ; even Nicholson's monstrously insensitive, shockingly (and gloriously) un-PC anti-hero turns out, in a totally craven plot device, to suffer from some unspecified obsessive-compulsive disorder (we're supposed to find him objectionable but also sympathise with him - talk about trying to have your cake and eat it too). Unlike JERRY MAGUIRE, which mined a similar vein - people connecting in a harsh, unforgiving world - the characters here seem disengaged, out of touch with life : that film was about Love as Salvation, magically accomplishing in a look or a single touch what the characters' energy and spirit couldn't bring them, but this is about Love as Escape - a way out for these defeated people, who have no energy or spirit (indeed, they're barely surviving - that's the point) ; it's a film of frequent, portentous silences, but they seem curiously unnecessary - they're like symbols of the characters' defeat, neon signs reading "Life Is Hard". There are good things too of course, especially in the performances (Hunt, in particular, is terrific), but there's something off-putting about this kind of sledgehammer compassion, characters viewed almost as martyrs and spouting lines like "You look at someone long enough, you discover their humanity" (cue poignant string music on the soundtrack). Even the gritty edge is a bit of a cheat - there's never any doubt that Nicholson will turn out to be a softie (as indeed he does, after about five minutes with the world's ugliest dog). The whole thing just seems increasingly whiny - and, in using humour as a softening device, increasingly phony.