Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

davyyells As someone who rarely writes reviews, I must say that this is most definitely the most beautiful movie of all time. I started it with very low hopes and by the end I was stuck looking at the stunning masterpiece. I must also say that I had never cried during a movie or television show before. I've watched many movies. This was the only movie I've ever cried and it wasn't just a tear, I mean I was in full baby mode. The movie shows Maude teaching Harold something about life that I've never seen a movie, or even person, be able to teach anyone. You sit there as a viewer thinking you're watching Maude teach Harold but before you know it, Maude has taught you.

Benedito Dias Rodrigues Absolute unique this odd and dark comedy supported by a fine screenplay put together two generation between fifty years old,about a shy boy lived by the newcomer Bud Cort who has an existential crisis quite often in mother's disagreement,even trying a psychiatric treatment with any apparent results,make all effort to avoid of young girls which supplied by his unaffected mother,he actually glads to be at cemetery's funerals,there he finds a other side of human nature,a fresh outgoing old woman played magnificently by Ruth Gordon,probable his best work in your career,one the most daring and rare movie of all time,funny and weird,then become a cult!! Resume: First watch: 1988 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8.5

amplexuslotus Hal Hashby's masterpiece, Harold and Maude is one of the best movies ever made. It would never have gotten approval in our dark 21st century.Filmed mostly in northern California, the cinematography really captures the 70's. Amazing script by Colin Higgins who sadly died young. Fantastic performances by all especially Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Charles Tyner and Vivian Pickles. Wonderful set design that evokes the 70's and earlier decades (Maude's home is full of character and memorabilia.)The film touches on so many subjects (being a misfit, youth, old age, war, politics, life and death) but for me the main theme is to enjoy life - even the bad stuff. That life is worth living. And that maybe for some of us the only way to understand the precious joy of life is to engage with those who are closer to death.Probably the finest soundtrack of any film entirely by Cat Stevens.

sandnair87 Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude attained cult status for its portrayal of a morbid youth who falls in love with a spirited woman not twice, but four times his age. Harold is a withdrawn rich boy who has a proclivity for staging elaborate - often gory - "suicides" to torment his very-proper control-freak of a mother, who remains blissfully unaffected by his theatrics. When he is not trying get a rise from his maternally inept mother, he is attending funerals of complete strangers, just for the fun of it. It's at one of these staid ceremonies that he meets the free-spirited octogenarian Maude. It turns out that attending strangers' funerals is about the only thing they have in common, which is why they turn out to be a match made in heaven. Soon they are spending time together, and Maude's full-throttle zest for life opens Harold up to its possibilities. His death obsession remains, but it begins to recede as Maude's life-affirming philosophies, however oddly enacted in her anything-goes lifestyle, cuts through his malaise. She speaks in hippie-friendly aphorisms, but coming from the mouth of such a delicately poised octogenarian, they take on the weight of accumulated wisdom. More than a friend or lover, Maude infects Harold with her carpe diem attitude, freeing him from the inner demons of boredom and self-pity. The pair soon fall into a romantic relationship that shouts in the face of societal mores. It's a disquieting premise for a movie, certainly, but to dwell on the age difference of the characters is to miss the movie's point. Part of the beauty of Harold and Maude is the way you quickly lose sight of the age difference between Harold and Maude and begin to see them simply as people who connect and love each other. They are oddballs in a world that doesn't understand or appreciate them, although the film sidesteps simple us-versus-them banality by portraying the establishment as kooky in its own right. The film spends much of its time in a unique space between reality and farce, towing a fine line that director Hal Ashby maintains with seemingly effortless grace. Its bleak morbidity is uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity (Harold's long series of faux suicide attempts are hysterical), buoyed by Cat Stevens' amazing pop soundtrack, providing just the right wistful, mournful touch for this glimmering jewel of a movie. The casting is impeccable. With his baby face and elfin eyes, Bud Cort looks much younger than his age, which makes some of his antics seem even more childlike. Yet, once he spends time with Maude, he seems to mature in front of us, losing the angry-child glint in his eyes and becoming a reformed innocent. Ruth Gordon's sprightliness lends the perfect counterbalance to Bud, as she plays Maude as a one-of-a-kind without turning her into a kook. She evinces such sweetness and genuine care for what she loves that you can't help but admire her constancy.By turns funny, moving and outrageous - sometimes all at once - the film is Hal Ashby's masterpiece, thanks in no small part to Colin Higgins' nearly perfect screenplay and the incredible performances by everyone. If you've never seen Harold and Maude, that needs correcting.