As Good As It Gets

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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

This is a terrific movie - well-plotted and refreshingly dismissive of political correctness. Like the gravediggers in Hamlet, the young protagonist's progress towards becoming the super daughter-in-law gives a structure to this charming romantic comedy. This is a very traditional film in its message, and there is a certain poignancy to the closing scene in which the boy and girl, freed by love and secure in the stability of their newly-forged family, throw water at one another while washing the car. The 'super kelinchak' has found her place as a wife and mother yet is as feisty as the mother-in-law who taught her how to become the perfect daughter-in- law. Not a triumph for feminism, this is nevertheless an enjoyable film that harks back to traditional values in which the family is the smallest and most important social unit.