AS GOOD AS IT GETS

 

TWO STARS - Shallow

 

 

       When an annoying, angry, bigoted, compulsively neurotic person looks good to you, then something has gone terribly wrong with your life.

       Although you may try to convince yourself that this is “as good as it gets,” everything within you should be raising a flag of warning that there has to be more to life than this.

       Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is a 50-something middle-aged man diagnosed as having an obsessive-compulsive disorder.  But unlike many with this malady, Melvin has covered his fears with a disagreeable and angry veneer.

       His disorder and offensiveness  have driven him into isolation where he fills his time creating relationships in his head.  He then writes his imaginary relationships down and has become an author of 62 best-selling romance novels.

       Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) is his waitress.  Carol is the only one who will serve him when he comes daily into the same restaurant, insists on sitting at the same table and demands the same food.

       Carol is a 30-something divorcee whose life revolves around her son.  Her finances relegate her to inadequate health care so that her asthmatic son is treated by a revolving door of emergency room interns.

       Enter into this mix a next door neighbor of Melvin’s, Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear).  Simon is a homosexual artist who becomes destitute when he is brutally mugged and robbed by the friends of one of his male models.

       While Simon is in his lengthy hospital recovery, Melvin is asked to care for Simon’s little dog Verdell.    Melvin “hates” this little dog and has already tried to get rid of him by putting him down the building’s garbage chute.

       But this is the beginning of healing for Melvin.  Having loved nothing and being loved by no one, Melvin begins to court this little dog’s affection.

       Through using rich bacon and beef, which initially win’s Verdell’s affection but eventually harms his stomach, Melvin begins to experience what it is to care for another being.

       This caring develops further when he goes to his restaurant and finds that Carol has quit in order to take care of her sick son.  Partly to get her to return to work to serve him, partly out of a sublimated attraction for her, and partly out of a budding ability to care for others, Melvin pays to have an experienced doctor care for Carol’s son.

       This is the second step of his healing.  Although our love for one another often has multifaceted motivations, Melvin’s physical and sexual hunger melds with his relational hunger and he takes a step of caring.

       Though Carol has no disorder, her experiences with men have obviously left her hurting and cynical.  She believes that Melvin’s intentions in helping her are of only one motivation:  To get into her bed.

       Though he denies such a motivation when she confronts him, her intuition is correct that he desires more from her than just getting her to waitress his food. Melvin wants love.  He wants relationship.  He wants a normal life.

       When Simon decides that his only way out of his poverty is to ask his parents for help, Melvin agrees to drive him to their city and invites Carol on the trip.

       It is on this trip that we learn the causes of their painful lives.  Simon’s mother seduced him into painting her nude and Simon’s father beat him unconscious and rejected him.

       Melvin’s father displayed mental illness by staying in his room for 11 years and beating him for making piano mistakes when he finally came out.

       Both look to Carol to save them and restore them to normalcy.

       It is here that the film lies not only to us but to itself.  Carol poses nude for Simon and he is cathartically renewed.  Carol kisses Melvin and he is excitedly restored.

       This not only has the feel of empty cinema, but it would also be psychologically damaging to perpetuate Simon’s incestuous attraction in this new mother-figure. The needs of these two men go far beyond the power of Carol to heal them, and Carol is in way over her head with expectations she will never be able to meet.

       Although “As Good As It Gets” is a funny and touching tale woven in our hearts by exceptional actors and actresses, the end of our journey leaves us asking the question:  Is this really as good as it gets?  There would have to be more substance to the story than this, if Melvin and Carol are to truly create a life together.

 

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