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best movie i've ever seen.

As Good As It Gets

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a story, set in Paris, about a con artist falling in love, resolving to reform, and then despairing about his chances and moving on. William Powell plays the con artist, and his love interest is Carole Lombard who plays Mary Kendall, daughter of a wealthy business owner from the U.S. But, Powell isn't just any con artist. He's a master who runs a sophisticated yet simple scheme. Wynne Gibson plays an accomplice of Powell's Michael Trevor. As Irene Hoffa, she carries a torch for him. She's jealous and is torn by love-hate feelings for the guy. Some other supporting cast do their parts well. The story is just a version of many others one has read, heard or watched on film. Bad guy meets girl, falls in love and goes straight. I don't mean to make it sound like a trifle, but something isn't quite right about this film. It's supposed to be a romantic drama. There is no chemistry between the two leads. Powell shows no emotions at all. His character has no life. He just seems to mope from one scene to another – head down and eyes toward the floor. It seems like Powell hasn't yet shaken that acting method from the silent films he made. He is capable of much better as we see in his many later films. The script isn't very good and the direction is lacking. It's a fair film for folks who enjoy Powell and Lombard movies. But it's nowhere near the considerable repertoire of very good films made by either star. I rate it six stars mostly for the good look it provides of some of the top supporting cast actors from the first decade of the talkies.

The film isn't the greatest but not the worst film ever made. Okay, it's about Paris in the 1930s where American expatriates like William Powell's character go to make money, live cheaply, and escape the horrors of the Great Depression in the United States. William Powell is a great actor and perhaps one of the finest of his time. He does what he can with this weak script where he plays a publisher in Paris. He falls in love with the niece of a wealthy American played by the wonderful Carole Lombard. Wynne Gibson has a supporting role as the other woman in William Trevor (Powell's character) life who knows his secrets. I liked Wynne Gibson in another film and she was a great actress here as well. The actors do the best with the weak script but it was Paramount and other studios who produced and made films a lot more than they do today. Studio film actors and actresses had contracts to make a certain amount per year. Yes, not all of them were brilliant. Some of them like this film is one of mediocre types of it's time.

Man Of The World is an 80-year old curio found in an economically priced Universal album with five other Carol Lombard pictures likewise valued primarily as antiques. The gorgeous Miss Lombard bore not a little resemblance to Greta Garbo in the looks department, though even more beautiful. Unfortunately there was little resemblance in the acting department. She was best at comedy, but Man Of The World is a melodrama. Never mind, William Powell was on hand to take care of that department with solid support from the delightfully eccentric Guy Kibbee and perennial strumpet Wynne Gibson.This picture is very much the creaking early talkie. You know it is from the moment you start the DVD by the 1.20:1 screen aspect ratio. The sound strip on the edge of the film cut the 35 mm film frame's original 1.33:1 (same as an old standard TV screen) down to a claustrophobic, square-looking screen. By 1933 all the studios would adopt the "Accademy Standard" 1.37:1 screen by the simple expedient of a camera aperture mask. Early street scenes in Man Of The World are obviously stock footage from silent movies. But there was little other stock footage available then! When the movies started talking, there were three kinds of actors available -- those who had acted only in silents, stage actors, and actors who had experience in both media. But they and their directors soon learned that the talking picture was a whole new game. The melodramatic gestures needed to convey emotion in silent movies looked ridiculous with actual spoken dialog. Yet the stage style of acting would seem wooden in talking pictures. With microphones actors did not need to shout to be heard, and the motion picture camera could record subtle facial expressions and body movements which would have been lost on the third row of a live theater audience. Both Powell and Lombard had stage as well as silent movie experience, though much more of the latter in her case. Powell, who would eventually develop a talking picture style of top caliber, was still working on it in Man Of The World. He seems a little stiff at times, and so does Wynne Gibson, but both are nevertheless very effective. Contrary to what some other reviewers have felt, I found Gibson's performance and asset, even though there were times when she was projecting to the back row seats. Carole Lombard's sound acting style with her sexy voice and fluid movement seems more natural, but then her part in the picture is not a particularly demanding one. Guy Kibbee, surprisingly, is the player who had the most secure handle on the new sound movie style. Perhaps it was his early experience as an entertainer in the intimate confines of a Mississippi riverboat.The oft-used plot has slick con man Powell trying to work a blackmail scheme on naive American lass Lombard and her rich but dimwitted uncle Kibbee. With jealous ex-moll and confederate Gibson egging on the reluctant Powell. Predictably Powell falls in love with the sweet and beautiful Carole. However, all is very well done, things do not necessarily go according to formula, and the ending is something of a surprise.Though I was about to give up on the Carole Lombard movies after watching two from the set, The Princess Comes Through, and We're Not Dressing (see my review), I was pleasantly surprised by Man Of The World. But then it was really a William Powell movie. Carole didn't have to do much except look good, and she did that very well indeed.Man Of The World is rough around the edges but rewarding if you stick with it. At an hour and fourteen minutes, a good filler movie.--------- Post Script (Jan 2014): Since writing this creaky old review, viewings of several other Carol Lombard Lombard pictures, including Love Before Breakfast (1936) (see my review) and the wonderful Twentieth Century (1934) have considerably raised my regard for the beautiful lady's acting ability.

This film stars William Powell and Carole Lombard--who were briefly married shortly after this film was made. Powell plays a very sophisticated and clever thief who blackmails Americans who visit Paris. Supposedly Americans run wild in France and give Powell and his partners a lot of material. The film begins with Powell "helping" a gullible, rich American (Guy Kibbee)--saying he knows of a man who publishes a scandal sheet who is going to blackmail Kibbee. Powell "generously" agrees to arrange to pay off the blackmailer--who is Powell himself. Then, after fleecing Kibbee, he sets his sights on his niece (Lombard). The problem is that over time, Powell finds he's fallen for the lady and cannot bring himself to hurt her. When he tells her the truth, his life is turned upside down.While the plot is hard to believe, because Powell was such a wonderful actor it's easy to suspend disbelief and enjoy the movie. As for Lombard, she's just fine but isn't given as much of a part. While a good actress, the role could have been played by practically any young leading lady of the day.As far as the ending goes, this will no doubt alienate many viewers. While you'd assume there'd be some wonderfully magical happy ending, this film dares to go with realism--and in the end, everyone loses. An odd choice but at least it avoids the clichéd conclusion. I liked it but realize it's still a rather minor film--one that is very watchable but not much more.