As Good as It Gets

As Good as It Gets (1997) is a romantic comedy-drama from TriStar Pictures you can watch online on iFILM. Director James L. Brooks — who earlier made Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News — cast Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall, a novelist who earns his living writing about love and cannot stand a single human being.

Melvin's days run on locked rails: the same table, the same diner, the same waitress Carol, played by Helen Hunt. His OCD and weaponised rudeness keep everyone at a comfortable distance. Then his neighbour Simon, a painter played by Greg Kinnear, ends up hospitalised — and Melvin is stuck with Simon's small dog. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Frank, Simon's dealer, who becomes an unlikely thread holding these four people together.

At the 1998 Academy Awards, Nicholson took Best Actor and Hunt took Best Actress — both leads from the same film winning in the same year, which almost never happens. The movie earned over $314 million worldwide. Stream As Good as It Gets (1997) in full online on iFILM.