Wonderful Movie

As Good As It Gets

A Masterpiece!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This a story about second chances. I do not know how faithful it is to Anne Tyler's novel, I have not read it, but I know in real life everyone needs second chances. In this story everyone gets a second chance but Danny, unfortunately. Lucy gets a second chance with Danny. Bee and Doug Beedloe get a second chance to be parents and they do a good job. Ian ruins Lucy's second chance, but redeems himself by taking responsibility for raising the orphaned children as his parents age, and they do a good job raising them. When the other grandmother is finally found years after Danny and Lucy's deaths, Ian realizes that they are better off without that woman in their lives. A second chance with that grandmother would have been a disaster. Finally Ian himself gets his own second chance with Rita. The Church of Second Chances is a metaphor for life. God is always there giving second chances,and even third and fourth ones. Life is filled with second chances, if we only see them and embrace them.

I sat down thinking I would have a nice quiet evening watching a chick flick kind of movie. What I ended up doing was wasting my evening hoping this movie would get better. I watched it to the end and no it never got better. I felt cheated out of a evening I could have been watching something worthwhile. Don't waste your time. It never gets better. it just drags on and on. Find a movie that causes some other emotion that pity for the author for believing she was a real writer. The movie and the book are a waste of money, time and energy. There are plenty of books that read better and don't make you feel like you just want to get through it.

This is a very poor attempt to translate a marvelous book to the screen. Hallmark should have made this a multi-parter, and definitely should have left elements of the book alone. "Saint Maybe" is a very long book, and may well be Tyler's masterpiece. Condensing it into a "movie of the week" format dilutes the vivid images painted by her. "The Accidental Tourist" was much better and kept as faithful to the book as possible. If you haven't read "Saint Maybe" you should. Once you do you'll love it and ask "why did Hallmark change so much?!?" I was very disappointed. The actors try very hard to win us over, but the script is just too weak. Perhaps someone will attempt to make another of her books into a movie with better results.

I had to watch this movie again, while I agree it may be thin in places, the overall plot made me want to see the end, I admired the dignity that Tom McCarthy displayed and I was pleased to see that there were good solid morals portrayed. It took courage for Ian to sacrifice his youth (to atone for his mistake) and while he could have gone off the rails as someone suggested it was quite noble of him to draw strength from God and raise the kids like his own and never divulge the terrible secret of their mothers' past to them. It is quite simply a nice but realistic movie, people are faced with choices like these everyday, most people actually chicken out!!!Real Men & Women are those who do not need to shout to be heard but live with dignity and strength!!!