Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 139 minutes
Release Date: December 23rd, 1997 (USA)
Studio: TriStar Pictures
Director(s): James L. Brooks
Writer(s): Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks / Mark Andrus (story)

You look at someone long enough, you discover their humanity.

This thing holds up. Not just as an “in-context” offering either. Because the issues most people seem to focus on now aren’t actually a matter of political correctness since James L. Brooks and Mark Andrus refuse to pretend that any of the horrible things Melvin says are just for the joke.

They speak to this misanthropic character’s flaws and our impulse (sometimes rightfully so) to ignore and/or reject people without fully understanding why they act the way they do. The reactions to him by others and his reaction to those responses both confirm his objective foulness and, perhaps, his guilt-stricken desire to do better. I therefore think your enjoyment depends more on whether you’re a romantic or cynic.

Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt earn their Oscars. Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Shirley Knight are on par with them too. But how crazy is this cast beyond just the principals? “House” alums Peter Jacobson and Lisa Edelstein as the couple Melvin berates with antisemitism. Jamie Kennedy as Skeet Ulrich’s hustler friend. I didn’t even notice Maya Rudolph, so that credit had me wanting to rewind and find her.

Then there are all the filmmaker cameos too. Shane Black as the diner manager (where Missi Pyle and Wood Harris also work), Lawrence Kasdan as Melvin’s uncompromising psychiatrist, and Todd Solondz with some immaculately awkward physical comedy while silently dealing with Hunt invading his space on the bus as she waves goodbye to her son.

It’s a bona fide classic that neither talks down to its audience nor its characters. I probably still would have gone with Titanic in Best Picture and Good Will Hunting in Best Original Screenplay too, though.

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Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in AS GOOD AS IT GETS.