At one point in "As Good As It Gets," Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) confronts a room full of people waiting to see a psychiatrist and questions, "What if this is as good as it gets?" If this film is indeed as good as cinema gets I can't say I'd mind too much. It is sometimes raucously funny, sometimes quietly despairing, but always entertaining. I didn't even look at my watch once during the two hours and eighteen minutes of the movie, something that happens only rarely.

The great strength of this film lies in the writing of Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks. The language is fresh, original, and (in the case of Melvin) outright offensive. Melvin is a rarity in today's cinema: a character who is not afraid to say exactly what is on his mind regardless of when the thoughts pass through his head. A popular writer, Melvin is also a diagnosed obsessive-compulsive, with all the patterns of behavior that go along with it. He flips the locks on his doors at least five times, and washes his hands with an unopened bar of soap every time he touches something or something touches him outside the secluded world of his apartment. He has no friends and makes no effort to relate to other people, simply because it is not possible for him to do so.

Of course, this leads to situations that are amusing to watch from the comfort of theater chairs, but are considerably less attractive to the characters who are forced to share Melvin's world. He clashes with everyone, from his gay neighbor Simon to a girl who works in his publisher's office to an absolutely adorable dog. The only human being who seems to have any effect on Melvin at all is Carol, a waitress at the one restaurant to which he will go. She manages to at least partially control him, and he does occasionally make an effort to modulate his behavior around her.

The supporting characters are as well-drawn as Melvin, and the actors play them extremely well. One of the great surprises of the movie was Greg Kinnear's Simon, a gay artist who clashes frequently with his eccentric neighbor. Kinnear did a nice job in other films such as "Sabrina" and "Dear God," but this time he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can ACT. He creates a character that is very sympathetic and just as interesting as Nicholson's Melvin, but in a completely different way. Carol, played by Helen Hunt, comes across as a very old spirit in a young body, which is understandably difficult for an actor to achieve but which Hunt carries off beautifully and without visible effort.

The unlikely trio complement each other very well, and the mingling of the separate paths of their lives is most convincing. They move from being scarcely able to stand each other to genuine friendship, even after such inauspicious beginnings as Melvin bluntly introducing them as, "Carol the waitress" and "Simon the fag."

This film allows the viewer to travel along with the characters and to appreciate the subtle changes that come over them. This is due to both the great acting and the superb writing, making the trip a most enjoyable one.

Not a single one of the characters is dull. Cuba Gooding, Jr. shines in even as small a part as Simon's art dealer. The outright offensiveness of Melvin is anything but typical in an era of stifling political correctness, making "As Good As It Gets" a truly original and very enjoyable movie. In a year of occasionally dull and often predictable movie-making, this film is nothing short of a gift.