Jack Nicholson gives an Academy Award winning performance as Melvin Udall, an acid-tongued, obsessive-compulsive romance novelist with Manhattan's meanest mouth. But when his neighbour Simon (Greg Kinnear) is hospitalised, Melvin is forced to llok after Simon's dog. And that unexpected act of kindness - along with the daily exchange of insults with Carol the waitress (Helen Hunt) - helps put Melvin back in the human race.