As Good As It Gets

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Blistering performances.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

A family friendly movie, that doesn't need crude humor to be funny.Ray Romano plays a likable but flawed character, which also describesmost of his cohorts, his love interest, and even his "nemesis" (Gene Hackman).The comedy never resorts to slapstick , the situations are adult, yet G-rated.Highly recommended.

Welcome to Mooseport (2004) A funny, lightweight movie, 16 January 2011Welcome to Mooseport (2004) was directed by Donald Petrie. The film isn't a masterpiece by any means, but I think it deserves more than the really low rating it received from voters.Gene Hackman is Ex-President Monroe Cole, who moves to a small town in Maine to relax, write his memoirs, and cash in on the lucrative opportunities of U.S. former president. Along with Cole come his long-time aide, Grace Sutherland (Marcia Gay Harden), and his very angry ex-wife, Charlotte, played by Christine Barnanski. Ray Romano is Handy Harrison, the owner of a hardware store. Because of a complicated set of events, both men decide to run for Mayor. And the winner is . . .What saves the movie is not the plot, but the acting. Gene Hackman is one of the great actors of our time, and this is the kind of role that he can do well without even trying. Ray Romano is not exactly Hamlet material, but he's fine in a light comedy like this one. I was most impressed by Maura Tierney, with her unusual beauty and her warm but skeptical smile. She loves Handy, but she's not about to throw herself at him when he's acting like a jerk.I saw this movie in a hotel, and it worked well on the small screen. It's not a film that you would go out of your way to see, but if you're in the mood for a light comedy, this would be a very good choice.

The idea had possibilities. An ex US President retires to Mooseport, Maine or Vermont, I forget. He gets tangled into running for mayor. With as great an actor as Gene Hackman, this film could have been very funny indeed. But some Hollywood 'artistic' executive (read bean counter) decided to give it to a team of uninspired hacks. If I gave a cinema-appreciation course, I would force my students to sit through this film in order to learn everything that is wrong with Hollywood today. Clichés, political-correctness, the predictability and the suspense of watching mushroom grow, all of the above run amok in this movie, which is *technically* perfect, as are most Hollywood productions. But it suffers from a deadly flaw: it is excruciatingly dull and unremittingly boring, although through no fault of Gene Hackman's or of any of the other main actors, with one exception, Ray Romano, who should abandon any idea of ever acting in any kind of comedy again. Will someone please tell me *who* decides to make such films?

This is a movie that makes you happy. It is light to digest, it gives a nice aftertaste, it is never too sour nor too bitter and it makes you laugh. Good old Gene Hackman acts at his best, being 30 years younger than his real age. And two nice, mature ladies shine in Mooseport: the president's secretary, good looking and ready for love, and the local taken-for-granted pretty girlfriend, who wants that rock on her finger so badly. The absence of bad language and gratuit violence makes a difference with so many modern comedies, where children capture a way of talking (and a life attitude) they would better avoid. None of that in Mooseport.