As Good as It Gets (1997)

As Good as It Gets rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.7/10· 336K votes

Rotten Tomatoes86%

Metacritic67%

TMDb7.402/10· 4K votes

With 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.7/10 on IMDb and 67/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About As Good as It Gets

A misanthropic author, a single mother and waitress, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.

Cast of As Good as It Gets

• 

  Jack Nicholson

  as Melvin Udall

• 

  Helen Hunt

  as Carol Connelly

• 

  Greg Kinnear

  as Simon Bishop

• 

  Cuba Gooding Jr.

  as Frank Sachs

• 

  Shirley Knight

  as Beverly Connelly

• 

  Jesse James

  as Spencer Connelly

• 

  Yeardley Smith

  as Jackie Simpson

• 

  Lupe Ontiveros

  as Nora Manning

• 

  Skeet Ulrich

  as Vincent Lopiano

• 

  Harold Ramis

  as Dr. Bettes

• 

  Lawrence Kasdan

  as Dr. Green

• 

  Bibi Osterwald

  as Neighbor Woman

As Good as It Gets facts

Budget

$50M

Box office

$314.2M

Our take on As Good as It Gets

James L. Brooks builds this 1997 comedy-drama around a misanthropic novelist whose rigid, insulting routine slowly cracks open. When a single mother who waits his table and a gay artist recovering from a violent robbery drift into his orbit, an unlikely friendship reshapes all three. Brooks favors sharp, prickly dialogue over sentiment, letting warmth arrive grudgingly rather than on cue. It suits viewers who like character comedy with a serious undertow, and who don't mind a lead who's genuinely hard to like before he softens. Patient, observant and often very funny, it rewards anyone drawn to stories about difficult people learning, awkwardly, to need others.