Hollywood Watch

As Good As It GetsTake an acid-tongued, foul-mouthed romance novelist Melvin Udall suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, living i...

As Good As It Gets

Take an acid-tongued, foul-mouthed romance novelist Melvin Udall suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, living in an ivory tower and get him to mingle with the hoi poloi of the Big Apple and you have the beginnings of As Good As It Gets. Cast Jack Nicholson as this eccentric character and you get a film that works because the actor playing the part has a role written to suit his persona. Nicholson is the focal point of the film but as we go along, even this seeming misogynist is able to show signs of romance. That8217;s when single-mother-waitress Carol Connelly Helen Hunt comes in.

Never one to avoid confrontations, Udall takes pride in his ability to affront, repulse, offend and wound. He is a terror to all who come within his ambit. The only person who can exert some control on him is Connelly, who works in a restaurant where he devours an artery-hardening breakfast of bacon, sausages and eggs. In fact, the asthma problems of her son reveal the first signs of thequot;other Melvinquot;.

Simon Nye Greg Kinnear has the distinct misfortune of living across the hall from Udall in a Manhattan co-op. A talented contemporary artist, he is the darling of New York8217;s art circuit and his art dealer friend Frank Sachs Cuba Gooding Jr is another person responsible in softening up the quot;crusty old authorquot;. And it8217;s all over a dog.

Mark Ardus8217; screenplay is adequate with some caustic one-liners and director James L Brooks goes to town with the talent at his disposal, especially Nicholson. The film shows how one half of New York doesn8217;t know how the other half lives. The film has a good deal of heart and the transformation of the key characters is succinctly achieved. The ambience of that mad but glamourous city is also graphically recaptured. Cameos by Kinnear, Gooding Jr and Shirley Knight Carol8217;s mother help this delightful romantic comedy. Of course, the film belongs to Nicholson and Hunt as is evident form the Oscars they walked off with the Best Actor and Best Actressawards.

If you8217;re a Nicholson fan you8217;ll love the film. If you aren8217;t, you will still love it and may end up as his fan. Don8217;t miss it.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Summer time and the living isn8217;t easy. In fact it gets terrifying for these four friends teenagers who find their lives in a tizzy after they hit someone on the road. What8217;s more is that the person isn8217;t killed immediately after the accident but to hide this incriminating evidence, they drowm him.

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And vow to keep it a secret. But murder has a tendency to rear its ugly head. I Know What You Did Last Summer is a tale about this murder most secretive.

Julie, Helen, Barry and Ray comprise this foursome. Helen has just been crowned beauty queen in this small North Carolina community so secrecy is a must for her. Boyfriend Barry is wealthy and decides to make money talk. So, he assumes leadership and Julie and Ray are forced to take a backseat in the decision-making.

Does the victim rise from the ashes? Or is it someone else whohas an axe to grind? Whatever the answer, an overcoat-clad man with a hook for a weapon is hot on their trail. And suspense and action almost Hitchcockian in character follows. Till the three-quarter-mark director Jim Gillespie keeps the story taut and engrossing. But in the last quarter, he runs out of ideas and a brilliant film nose dives to disaster.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is the best of a poor lot of comparative newcomers and Anne Heche has a brief enigmatic part but the biggest drawback of I Know What You Did Last Summer is that it doesn8217;t know when to stop.

ERVELL E MENEZES