Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Skeet Ulrich, and Shirley Knight.
138 Minutes.
Directed by James L. Brooks from the story by Mark Andrus.
Not your average character, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is a veritable nutcase, so caught within an
obsessive compulsive disorder that he lives a rather bizarre existence. He is racist, sexist, and scared of
germs and chaos to such a degree that he even has his sweeties colour co-ordinated!
Deftly disguised
as a romantic comedy, As Good As It Gets portrays changes to the lives of three main characters who
are brought together by the interference of a small dog - Verdell - owned by Simon Nye (Greg Kinnear).
Simon, a beautiful gay painter at the helm of Manhattan's contemporary art scene, lives in the same
building at Melvin.
They open the film at loggerheads, Melvin's illness causing violent and stinging
outbursts because he cannot tolerate the change made to his behaviour patterns by Verdell. Melvin's
temper is juxtaposed throughout the film with his more private self, the gentle and generous man who
works as a romance novelist.
Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) is a player in his pattern - she works waitressing at a downtown cafe that
Melvin frequents for lunch every day at 11am. As the story unfolds you learn that Carol's experience as
a working mother whose child is ailing with asthma, enables her to have the strength to deal with the difficult
customers.
Melvin fits in to this category. Where to others he may offend, to Carol he teeters on humour
and empathy. It seems in a mad world, that he is the only one who asks how she is. Through the layers
of etiquette, cafe banter and abuse, sifts an understanding between the two of perhaps a deeper side to life.
There the film expands upon itself, here possibilities lie. Plot changes to Simon's life bring the three characters
together in a neat twist, enabling the pivotal character development of the film to expolate.
Billed as a comedy, As Good as it Gets has undertones of psychological drama. Interestingly enough, what
each character attempts to hide, is what is perceived by the others. There are many messages in the movie,
but a poignant social one is that people are often judged by their behaviour. All three characters fall victim to
judgement and revision, of themselves and of each other. But the psychiatric condition of Melvin creates loopholes
not just for comic relief, but also for insights into the very foundations of what societies consider 'normal' or acceptable
behaviour.
For many people it is hard to see beyond a clinical illness and consider a sufferer as a balanced
individual. As Good as it Gets gives perhaps an unrealistic ability for the other characters to front-up to the myths
that pervade psychiatric illness, and offer opportunities for an alternative sense of reason to be heard. Perhaps
the difficulty in the film that brings it short of being marvellous is balancing both the potential inter-personal learning
experience with the strong comedy line.
Directed by Academy award winner James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) the film was taken
from the story by Mark Andrus. In many ways the success of the film rests on the strength of the performance of the
central actors. Jack Nicholson (One Flew over a Cuckoos Nest) is faultless as Melvin (and won the Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Award for it),
and Helen Hunt (Twister) is a powerful female lead. She has a superb ability to portray both confusion with comprehension,
and love with disregard, and is well deserving of her Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award.
In some respects, the film could have had more impact if many of the character diversions had been eliminated, and
a more developed progression between Melvin and Carol had occurred. Maybe that's the line for a sequel!
