As Good As It Gets (1997) Film Review

Melvin (Jack Nicholson) is an offensive, racist, misogynistic, misanthrope who also happens to have OCD. When his neighbour, Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear) a gay artist, is beaten in his house, Melvin is forced by Simon’s agent, Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding Jnr) to take the dog. Meantime, if he misses his meal at his local café served by the only waitress there who can deal with him, Carol (Helen Hunt), his life goes off track. So when her son, who suffers badly from Asthma, causes her to miss work, it sends his life totally off the rails.

Melvin is so totally offensive, but it’s so obviously a way to protect himself from the world and so you kind of deal with it. Especially because he does change as the film goes on. I expected to remember it as being overly cheesy, and I suspected that the depiction of OCD may have been somewhat simplified. However, it seems pretty reasonable – and while I think that it is believable that these changes can occur in Melvin’s life, it somewhat surprises me that changes haven’t happened prior to this late stage. But, the acting is fabulous, it really is an amazing cast and it is definitely worth watching.

As Good As It Gets won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Helen Hunt) and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Greg Kinnear), Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks), Best Film Editing and Best Music, Original Music or Comedy Score.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) Film Review

McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is a criminal who has been moved to a mental institution. It seems that, perhaps he is not mentally ill, but has faked it to avoid the hard labour of prison time. There, he becomes a part of a group of patients who are seen over by the dominating Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) and tries to raise their self-esteem and make their lives better in his own, ultimately flawed manner.

What a classic. You want to believe that the evil Nurse Ratched has her patients’ best interests at heart, yet she seems to be constantly getting the upper hand in power plays against them; most notably Billy. Then, when McMurphy comes along, she is challenged and cannot let things go until she wins. Also, McMurphy is a nasty piece of work; he just wants his own way and to have fun with little consideration of the consequences. But, being a selfish so-and-so obviously doesn’t deserve the treatment he ultimately receives.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Milos Forman) and Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman) and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Brad Dourif), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.

Witches of Eastwick (1987) Film Review

I have such a soft spot for eighties films with effects that, at the time, were totally cutting edge. This and Beetlejuice and two of my all-time favs.

Alexandra (Cher), Jane (Susan Sarandon) and Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) are three women whose husbands have gone (dead, divorced and deserted) living in the small town of Eastwick. After drunkenly describe the perfect man for them, a mysterious character appears in town; Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson). Rich, talented and totally repulsive. He manages to seduce the three and before they know it, the whole town in talking about them.

It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s gross and it’s magnificent. The absolute height of eighties comedy. (Actually, that’s a big call. There are a lot that fit into that category. But it’s definitely up there!)

The Witches of Eastwick was nominated for Oscars for Best Sound and Best Music, Original Score.

The Departed (2006) Film Review

Two young men enter the police force in South Boston. One is a young kid who has been groomed by local Irish gangster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) to be an insider in the force. The other, Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an honest guy with a bad family background, who is supposedly booted from the force and turns to crime, but is actually deep undercover. The only people who know that he is undercover are his two police contacts – Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) and Queenan (Martin Sheen).

This is based on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, and is almost exactly the same, shot by shot. So much so that I wondered if I had already seen this – but it is that I watched Infernal Affairs only recently. Yes, it is a good film, but it’s not the type of good film that is really worth watching two identical versions of. Even if the language is different. The Departed won a whole heap of awards including Oscars, and I wonder if there was any acknowledgement of Infernal Affairs or if it has been forgotten along the way. Jack Nicholson was nominated and won a series of awards for his performance which I really cannot understand as I thought his performance was very average. Mark Wahlberg, however, was amazing and absolutely deserved the recognition he got.

The Departed won Oscars for Best Achievement in Directing (Martin Scorsese), Best Achievement in film Editing, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan) and was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Mark Wahlberg).