As Good As It Gets

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Ali MacGraw can't act, c'mon give me a break. One reviewer must be a Jr. High drop-out with no taste. MacGraw and Scott both do a fine job in China Rose. After all it is listed as a T.V. movie and that should be taken into consideration. Briefly, man goes to China to look for his son, lady is assigned to help him, romance sort of develops, but must take a back seat to the search. The rest you must watch to find out for yourself.I didn't have enough lines, so I will add the fact that there is a dark secret to be revealed but again you must watch the movie and I recommend you do. I found it on Amazon and added to my collection because I am a huge Ali MacGraw fan, no matter what some say. Yes, she was older in this film, but all of us age or die, so don't judge someone because they are aging.

She is such a terrible presence(can't call her an actor), no skills or talent at all, and she ruins any film she is in other than some early ones that traded off her Irish good looks when she was a gorgeous young girl. Forced, self-conscious, totally unnatural, no emotional range at all, and so in contrast to the great George C. Scott, she was a total embarrassment. And, her lame attempts to speak Chinese were out-loud laughable. I guess they got a famous name cheap here, as her declining looks were very evident. One upside.....her looks are fast getting closer to her "talent" and one day they will be the same, if she ever works again after this.The film story was about a rich American industrialist seeking his long lost idealistic son in China, and the confusing, conflicting and "inscrutable" things he went through to finally see what happened to him. McGraw was his paid, Chinese-speaking, American guide at first but lo and behold, this is Hollywood mind you, she became something else entirely by film's end, no matter how unlikely it all was.A mediocre film at best, as Scott could walk by and you would still know he is one of the greats, but McGraw ruined it for being anything more than a 2 hour diversion.

I thought "Any movie with George C. Scott has to have something on the ball...!" I was wrong.This is the only movie that has moved me enough to want to write a review for IMDb.There's not a single good performance in the movie. Scott's is best, clocking in at "not too bad" which is a gross disappointment for an actor of his caliber. Ali MacGraw is painful to watch. It goes downhill from there, one awkward scene with stilted dialog after another.Where was the director? Busy having lunch during the whole shooting? About the only positive reaction I have is the photography, giving a nice flavor of mainland China and Hong Kong.I am so glad I didn't actually pay money to watch this.

George C. Scott's character comes to Communist China to look for his long lost son. The US Embassy or Consulate assigns Rose (Ms. McGraw) who is studying in China, to be his guide and interpreter. Together, they set out looking for the son and have a dangerous time it. That sounds pretty banal but the acting is good and the chemistry between Ms. McGraw and Mr. Scott is palpable. And, from what I could tell, I think the locations were actually shot in China, not in a Hollywood lot. And the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land came across quite nicely. Everything considered, a superior movie