As Good As It Gets

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I'm not Polish, but I had the pleasure of visiting most of the country on multiple occasions, I studied there, I dated there. To all the critics who despise the use of profanity, the vulgar approaches of the protagonist, or the economical background, I invite them to take a closer look around Poland. If the described situations are unrealistic, then this is only half true. There are much worse and true facts that are either not mentioned or unexplored in this movie, like the feeling of unsafety, the neediness for capitalism and the exploitation hereof, and the careless and emotionless attitude of the young (men).Apart from that, this movie nails it. I saw it during a screening in my classes on Polish culture (braught by Polish teachers). I laughed out loud after the first words were uttered when the main character woke up. How sad, but how true his words were. Of course this is satire. What happens here to one person could at most be the combination of a hundred people involved. Still, the pain is real. It's not an easy life out there if you're a local. Everyday is a struggle, the English language is an unrealistic necessity, money is a key word.Keep an open mind when you watch this one. Seek out the good parts (I enjoyed all the dog references, since I'm not a big dog fan), and know that politically, economically, and privately, this does represent a part of Poland. I love that country though, with all its flaws. It's just not always easy.The movie gets a 10 from me. I haven't seen anything like it, and I've seen most.

I'm always looking at IMDb's best movie lists and this movie is in the list. Although it did not get much votes, average of votes is so high that it got a place in the top list. After watching it I gave it an 8 here is why: It'a about a middle aged, divorced, very lonely, obsessive and miserable man.This guy apparently has wasted his life, never found his dream girl, got married to another woman whom he did not love. Missed the chance of becoming a professor, got a job as teacher with low salary and disrespectful students.He only loves and cares about his son. But he predicts and afraid of that his son will become just like him and have a miserable life.Those all said, is this all his fault or are the society, country and people to blame is a question we ask along watching the movie.This movie shows a countries's long-time social problems, pointless politicians, spoiled youth and culture, changing but not adapting social structure and so on. Unfortunately those are not only for Poland but all the countries does have this kind of problems.So here we have two sides of a man's sad story. One side is his own obsessions, never ending health problems, pressure of his mom and always looking for better and never finding true love dilemma. Second is the weirdness of the society, a harsh criticism of Polish people and funny examples of how stingy, not friendly, selfish they are.Of course it does have some cultural references to Polish life and history which I could not understand since I am not Polish, but most of the movie is about us, all human beings.Just give it a try, I'm sure you'll find some similarity to your life.

I think it definitely is. Recently Polish films were pretty much always with Olaf Lubaszenko and Cezary Pazura. A decent director/actor pair but nothing special. Their films like "E=mc2" and "Chlopaki nie placza" were funny but rather mundane, just vulgar humor followed by slapstick. It's funny, but you get sick of it after a while. Then there were movies like "Psy" which are Polish wannabe American crime thrillers and action movies. Again they were decent efforts, but not comparable to movies of the same genre from Hong Kong (Hard Boiled) or America (Resevoir Dogs). This film however is a true work of art. Not just made to look cool, but to express a directors point of view. I think it compares to Aronofsky's masterpiece "Pi," in that it's story about a man lost in the search for something. Granted is the fact that this is a very different film than "Pi" in its story, but artistically it's a good achievement for a Polish director who looks like he is on his way to be among Wajda and Kieslowski. 9/10No MPAA rating. Contains strong profanity

Dzien Swira ( Day of the freak) is Koterski's latest addition to an already impressive portfolio. Like his other semi-autobiographical move titled Nic Smiesznego ( nothing funny), Dzien Swira records the inner dialogue & the prose of a single day in the life of Adam Miauczynski, a character based on M. Koterski. Miauczynski, like Koterski, is an compulsive-obsessive, excentric, bitter & disillusioned individual caught in Poland's post communist reality, a reality as Ill suited to him as the communist one was. One of the reasons why Koterski's work is either loved or intensly disliked by Poles, is the painfully acurate description of polish hell, made all the more vivid by his insistance on showing the trivial & at the same time essential moments of daily life in excruciating detail. life is all the more hell when the damned are aware that life could be different, and this is what makes Miauczynski's suffering all the more real. A number of the scenes are classics, unequalled by any of Koterski's contemporaries, especially the scenes depicting Miauczynski's relationship with his son, the senate, train toilet and street demonstration scenes.It is unfortuante for the western viewer that the context & language of the film make it very difficult to translate adequatly, refering as it does to polish classical literature, contemporary culture and nigh-untranslatable street slang, the contrast being all the more vivid, since Miauczynski is a Polish literature lecturer obsessed with what he percieves to be the decay of the language he loves.If I were to compare Koterski to any western director, it would be to Britain's Mike Leigh. An insane Mike leigh with an infectious sense of humour & a penchant for social commentary.All in all, This is Koterski's finest work to date, perhaps the finest Polish film in the last 5 years. My rating is a solid 8/10