Such a frustrating disappointment

As Good As It Gets

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting in this movie is really good.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. In this movie Meet Joy Robertson (Daphne Zuniga, TV's Melrose Place), a supermom who does it all -- even though her husband Stephen (David Sutcliffe, TV's Private Practice) and the rest of her family don't seem to appreciate just how hard she works, especially when it comes to Christmas. As the season rapidly approaches, the decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking and planning keep piling up - - and Joy's busy family just expects her to make it all magically happen without any help. Not this year! Joy goes on strike for the holidays, quickly inspiring a town-wide movement.This film had potential but fails. The actors playing the teen boys look like they are 30. There is also a woman in this who has a way over the top southern accent. I am however a huge fan of David Sutcliffe and he is charming here. The film however ends with a stupid sing along that just doesn't work. It should have ended "ONE YEAR LATER" showing the family working together to make "Christmas Enjoyable FOr Everyone". Watchable but forgettable as well!

I wouldn't vote 1 (awful) because it had SOME redeeming qualities. Those being that I DO enjoy the actors who were in it (Zuniga, Duffy and especially David Sutcliffe) but the story was so improbable as to verge on the unbelievable. I actually stopped watching 30 mins before the end.Whoever cast it is not very good at their job. NO WAY would we buy Duffy being Zuniga's MOTHER! Her older sister, sure,,, but MOTHER? Come on! Audiences aren't that stupid.And I agree with the other poster who said that the family is this story was ridiculous. Two of the most self-absorbed and spoiled teenagers with barely ANY manners. It's no wonder she felt the need to strike to begin with.It was a good concept gone bad. Whoever was responsible for the production and execution of it is at fault.

Syrupy chick flick lacking the guts it needs to be convincing. Casting Julia Duffy as Joy Robinson's mother was foolish, given that she is either too young to play that part, or that Zuniga is too old to play her part. In addition, was the slightly quavery voice Duffy used really supposed to convince us that she was older? Puhleeze! Either way, it didn't work for me. Nevertheless, the Joy Robinson character needs to grow a set! I was never, at any time, convinced that Joy had reached her end point in tolerance for her feckless, thoughtless and egocentric men-children. She reminds me of the off-brand trash bags: wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!!

Joy Robinson goes "on strike for Christmas" because she's doing all the preparation work herself with no help from her apparently unappreciative husband and sons.The movie starts out well enough, but by the time the men take over in the kitchen, it starts playing like a bad sitcom. The plot picks up and starts turning the corner into a decent watch in the scene wherein Joy (Daphne Zuniga) and her mom (Julia Duffy) have a serious mother-daughter talk about what Joy really wants to come out of her strike. The proceedings pick up from there, and the movie would deserve a higher rating overall were it not for the slapstick scenes in the early going."On Strike..." differs from most Christmas movies in that the children here are not a couple of cute tykes, but seniors in high school preparing to leave home soon to pursue their educations, and in one case, a football scholarship at Bowdoin, while in the other case, music and girls at Oberlin.The real value in this film is its message. Yes, Christmas is for kids, but Mom deserves more appreciation for all the hard work she puts in for the good of the family.