Top 10 feel good movies - 6 As Good as it Gets

1997

This is not a start to finish feel good movie but the emergence of Nicholson's character as a caring and sensitive but lonely old author rather than the top to bottom curmudgeon is the real feel good story and got Nicholson his Second Oscar.  Helen Hunt is brilliant, as always, and also won an Oscar for her performance as the waitress who can't quite bring herself to trust Nicholson'e motives in helping her son. Greg Kinnear plays the beaten up artist with vulnerability and doesn't overdo it but the dog is the real star though and in the scenes with the dog Nicholson starts to show what he is really like underneath the outer skin.


Favourite bit: There's just too many to pick one but all of the scenes with Nicholoson and the dog are brilliantly written and superbly acted.


Mike's view:  Two great performances and a cute dog.  A recipe for success that The Artist has successfully copied.