Excellent adaptation.

Don't Believe the Hype

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This was an absolutely shocking surprise hit for me. I watched it last night and cannot believe that it passed me by for nigh on 9 years.From the outset I was belly laughing at it. The plot was completely surreal and I was amazed that the whole story of Harold was lapped up and accepted by people.This is one indie movie that needs to be bigger. Trainspotting was the benchmark for how a British movie should be made, but this one moved the bar. It has just completely trashed my "top 5" of movies and I cannot fault one part of the film. I just want to sit in front of my TV and watch it again and again.The cast was perfect. All characters were realistic, and it was just pure entertainment from start to end. I insist that you see it NOW!

This movie is excellent. Utterly hilarious. While it pulls out many of the standard gags, it dose them in a superb way. It's also quite cheesy, but this makes it fun. Very fun.This happens to be one of those movies where you yell at the characters for being silly, but in a good way. Again, adding to the cheesy excellence of the whole piece.So many of the ideas executed in the film are so wonderfully silly. The best friend dating the mom, and the final confrontation between the dad and the bad punk boyfriend with flashy psychic powers...both excellent, along with so many other parts of it.Sometimes you can't hear what the characters are saying, but that's because they're British. That is my only gripe.

This film is absolutey delightful, a combination of a well-written and hilarious script, and some amazing art direction. Every scene in this movie presents its audience with an eyeful of imaginative staging. If you liked the movie The Royal Tennenbaums, see this... its more funny and even more visually rich.

Sheffield 1977 and 18 year old pen-pusher Vince Smith fancies himself as a Saturday Night Fever styled disco king, but the object of his affection, Joanna, is more interested in Johnny Rotton than John Travolta.While spineless Vince wrestles with his conscience, his downtrodden father, Harold, reveals a hitherto undeclared talent for magic that is nearer to the X-Files than the spoon-bending antics of Uri Geller. And when a fatal incident in a residential home brings him to the publics attention, Joanna's pompous scientist father surprisingly declares him a walking miracle! Featuring cameos from such '70s icons as Angela Rippon, John Craven, Keith Chegwin, Jan Leeming, Alan Whicker and Lulu (as Vince's wayward mum), Courtenay is a likeable Smith, and the film has all the ingredients for a warm, quirky romantic comedy, but sadly, it all fails to gel.Whatever happened indeed!