As Good as it Gets - 1997

This movie is filled with good acting, a few memorable lines and a weak story.
Jack Nicholson plays an OCD writer. Which means Jack playing Jack, but with some quirks. Like only using new soap bars and never stepping on cracks. He's about the meanest person alive. Racist and homophobic and just plain ugly to people.
Greg Kinnear plays his neighbor, a gay painter with a little dog. Unable to stand confrontation and trusting to a fault. His agent picks up a model off of a street corner for him to paint. The models friends break into rob him and end up beating him savagely.
Helen Hunt has the other sizeable role in the film. She plays a waitress with a sick boy. She's also the only person that can control Jack. When she misses work to tend to her boy, Jack hires a doctor to look after him so she can go back to work.
When Kinnear is beaten up, Jack looks after his dog. And falls in love with it. In fact the dog gives him some humanity by falling in love back. When Kinnear heals enough to return, the dog creates a bond between them. The combination of dog and doctor opens Jack up and makes him connect with other people.
The turning point of the movie comes when Jack is talked into driving Kinnear down to Baltimore to ask his parents for money. Jack insists that Hunt come with and our three protagonists all come together. Jack (finally) moves to spark a relationship with Hunt and gets some traction before screwing it up with his mouth. The rest unfolds and there's your movie.
Some good acting in this movie, but seriously flawed, too. Nicholson really doesn't act here. He's just himself. And Hunt works very hard. Maybe too hard as I wasn't even a little convinced that she was really a waitress. She comes off as harsh instead of strong. Kinnear really does the best job. He comes off as earnest and innocent.
The biggest flaw is the love story. I never believed that Hunt could fall for Nicholson. Even worse, I never believed that Nicholson actually fell for Hunt. That's kind of hard for a love story to overcome.
This movie is OK at best.