To be honest, this one just barely crept into the 3 star position, simply because the first half isn’t very good. One reason for this was having to put up with, yet again, Hollywood’s inane habit of centering too much of a film around the antics of a cute animal. Never mind the fact that it’s been done to death already and that it won’t be fresh again until long after the millennium. Yet, the makers did it anyway. Sigh! Thankfully, this focus doesn’t last and it is soon shifted back to the characters, where it belonged.

      Ultimately, the film’s strength comes from its much better second half, which contains a number of cute moments. (The first half has some funny lines too, but they are scattered.) Jack Nicholson is great as always, even though his character is hard to like sometimes. But the one who really impressed me is Greg Kinnear. He’s absolutely superb and proven that he’s a talented actor with range.

      So despite its faults, AS GOOD AS IT GETS is still a good time and very much worth the ticket price.