On the one hand we could criticize Greg Kinnear's character in 1997's 'As Good as It Gets' for being written as the stereotypical gay artist (there's a constant insinuation in films that people who are interested in the arts are gay), but Simon Bishop is played with such heart by Greg Kinnear that it would feel wrong to do so. Kinnear serves as the movie's more sympathetic male lead, a stark contrast to the obnoxious main character Melvin, who's played with verve by Jack Nicholson.
The movie is a light-hearted romantic comedy with Nicholson's character hopelessly in love with Helen Hunt's, and it takes a gay man to get beaten up, lend him his dog and teach him the error of his ways before he finds the courage to tell her. There are several cliché boxes being ticked over the course of the film, but it's all done in good humor.