Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

jorgedanieljdn I rented this and was very surprised by how good it was. The writing was so strong and the actors took those words and soared. There is not one false note. It felt like a CASSAVETTES film. Honesty on screen is what I look for in films.This film felt like real life. Real time. I could relate to these characters. Feel their pain.Their stories were compelling. I couldn't take my eyes of the screenMy favorite performances were Lisa Gay Hamilton and the late Howard Rollins.They moved me to tears. I hope this movie gets to be seen by others who are struggling with addiction. The message finally got to me and it is interesting that it came to me in the guise of a movie. I am now going out and buying the DVD and the play that the film is based on.Thank you to the film makers.

preppy-3 Jim (Richard Lewis) attends an AA meeting very worried about something. His sponsor encourages him to talk. He does...and immediately leaves. The rest of the movie involves him trying not to drink and it keeps going back to the meeting where we, one by one, hear each member say why they're there.I caught this at a small art cinema way back in 1997 and I never forgot it. It perfectly captures what an AA meeting is like and the stories related are harrowing. Quite a few well known actors play members: Sam Rockwell (still unknown at the time), Amanda Plummer, Parker Posey, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockheart and Faye Dunaway. Their considerable acting talents make the stories seem realistic and hard to shake off. There's no happy endings here. Grim and disturbing but realistic. Sometime the staginess shows through (you can tell this was based on a play) which is why I can only give it an 8. Still, it's well worth watching.

fogg98 This is Peter Cohn's film adaptation of a Gary Lennon play, and as is the case with most theatre to film crossovers, there is a rumbling sense of unfulfillment. Each fleeting view into the lives of these sad souls is too brief, never allowing the time to really absorb any one character, as you might do were you to watch an actual performance of the play. That said, Mr Cohn has assembled a very fine cast indeed, and although the roles are delivered in a "wait your turn..speak..sit down" style, you can see why a couple of these actors are considered 'greats' in their field. Richard Lewis offers an adequate performance as 'Jim' and is the only one afforded the opportunity of giving his character depth. Elsewhere, Howard Rollins, Calista Flockhart and Faye Dunaway all do a pleasing job with what little they're given, while Amanda Plummer and Sam Rockwell are criminally under-used. It is however, the stalwart skills of both Dianne Wiest and Spalding Grey that lift this film. Along with 'Rich' the bar-man adding unintentional comic relief (watch how he throws those coasters down!), they almost justify the rental fee. So grab a bottle of bourbon, sit back and wallow in the self-pity of others. It might just cheer you up.

K8-2 An inside peek at the goings-on of an unusually attractive Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Richard Lewis's character exists to provide a moral center for the film as it examines his desperate efforts to stay sober. The various members of the AA group provide different glimpses at what contributes to alcoholism and demonstrate that there is no one profile for what constitutes a "drunk."There are very nice performances in this film, particularly those of a pre-Ally McBeal Calista Flockhart and Parker Posey. The film's scene stealer and the most memorable drunk of all, however, is monologuist Spalding Grey, doing a hilarious turn as a church choir member who shows up at the wrong church. In the midst of explaining his blunder to the group he rhapsodizes brilliantly on the importance of Guinness in his life and discovers quietly that gee, maybe he too has a drinking problem.Overall the individual performances divert attention from the main storyline and provide more of a center for the film than Lewis, whose story is ultimately uninteresting. But check it out for Spalding Grey, who is probably the most natural actor in the film and a true pleasure to watch.