harmonj-95931
I watched this movie again for about the fourth time with the same goal as always - trying to figure out what in the world was "good" in the movie. Where in the world was ANYTHING desirable portrayed in the movie? This time, though, I asked myself what "it" was? I asked "As good as WHAT gets?" It was shortly after I asked myself this that Jack Nicholson sang the Monty Python tune "Look at the bright side of life." Then all the pieces fit into place. Yes, "it" is life... but I realized I suffered from a greater misunderstanding of the title. The title isn't "As Good As You Could Hope"... it was basically, "This Is As Good As Your Sorry A** Is Ever Going To See."Now that I "see" the movie as it was intended, now that the mystery has been solved... I am terribly disappointed. This movie is filled with A List names, but I would rate the movie itself as a C. That is "as good as it gets" from me.
cmcastl
What this film has and which no Marvel comic blockbuster has is 'emotional intelligence'. In this case, basically, the film is emotionally literate. It is dealing with the raw emotions of real people.Speaking as a guy, I don't like that Jack Nicholson's character Melvin, for all his flaws, ends up so much in debit to Helen Hunt's character Carol and her hard edges. Guys aren't always in the wrong and it is usually the case that the gals like to put us permanently on the defensive. I don't like that in real life and I don't like that in film. Helen Hunt's character Carol has an ailing son for whom to care and she is a fierce mother, there is nothing wrong with that, but Helen Hunt's Carol is the kind of woman from whom perhaps someone like Melvin should actually have stayed away. She has some very hard edges to her, for whatever reason, that could cut a guy every which way, although, to be fair to her, you sense that in her fierceness she can show a fierce loyalty, too. Speaking as a guy, however, I am not sure it is a happy ending for OCD but otherwise sensitive Melvin to end up with her. But I say again that what I like about the film is its emotional intelligence. It is about the ordinary human emotions, the emotions which make us human, or lacking which make us not so human. So many films today are emotionally illiterate for young males in America, Europe or Asia or wherever, who are emotionally illiterate but want something sexy in the picture and in which people get killed and things get blown up every ten minutes or so. For the Hollywood accountants, this is what puts bottoms on seats, brings in the dough.I am not sure that 'As good as it gets' could be made today for where is he Jack Nicholson or the Helen Hunt with the subtlety to make it.The film has one of my all-time favourite scenes. Melvin has been to see his psychiatrist but he is still not happy afterwards, about his life or life in general. So he appeals to the people in the waiting room: "Is this as good as it gets?" Is this not the question that any intelligent person must have asked themselves at some point? Repeatedly.
sharky_55
As Good as It Gets is directed by James L. Brooks, who has always had a good eye for characters beyond merely how the plot's cause and effect drive them. In Terms of Endearment it was two single women, pushing back against judgy social circles and vying for each other's approval as a third generation beckoned. Broadcast News was about juggling romance and professionalism in the corporate world of TV news journalism. It had satiric bite, but also a good heart underneath and an honesty towards its characters. More recently there was Spanglish, which had so much potential in surveying the loss of culture and control in the context of a maid's daughter within a wealthy American family and upbringing, but which fizzled out into straight romance. Jack Nicholson stars in As Good as It Gets as an OCD obsessed recluse disturbed by his gay neighbour and black art dealer. Though initially we think Melvin is a nasty racist and homophobe, eventually we come to realise he is an equal opportunity misanthrope. In one of his more prickly performances, Nicholson gingerly steps between the pavement cracks of New York, waddling around like a fat penguin, and hurls abuse so casually that we are shocked someone hasn't yet taken a shot at him (or ejected him from his favoured cafe). He types romance and love novels but doesn't practice what he preaches. Yet behind that cruel smile and open hostility is really just a scared little boy lashing out at what he doesn't understand - like something out of a School Bullying 101 manual from decades ago, he shrinks when Frank confronts, and is later coddled like a tantrum-prone child acting out by the only one who can handle him, his usual waitress Carol. "Behave!", she tells him while wagging her finger, and when he says something unredeemable, the whole cafe goes silent, and she draws a line in the sand, and it seems he has a line too. This power imbalance is why the eventual romance is hard to swallow. Does Mervin merely shut up because he couldn't bear not having his usual meal in the usual location, or does he really understand the gravity of what he has just said? His payment of the sick son's medical bills straddles the same argument, and again and again throughout the film, he aims barbed insults so casually, and resets his progress towards redemption. The whole process is so infuriating we begin to wonder why someone like Carol, with seemingly unlimited pools of patience and empathy, still sticks around to see him finally become some semblance of a decent human being. Not only does she baby the misbehaving Melvin, but one-night stands also turn into askew affairs, her dabbing the shirt of her date like a toddler at feeding time. They are worlds apart. One of Melvin's little steps sees him begrudgingly take care of his neighbour's dog and like something out of a Disney movie, come to eventually love and care for Verdell - after all, you can't be racist to a dog, can you? He won't even touch people, but he smothers the Brussels Griffon with affection squeezed out from the deepest chasms of his hardened heart. Meanwhile he is bullying Verdell's owner, literally hitting the man as he is down. Some of the insults are as clever as they are cruel ("You'll be back on your knees in no time") and again we marvel at how casually nasty he can be. Though the script aims to warm our hearts, it more than often disarms us with sudden tonal shifts; the next day he's knocking at the door with hot soup, and just about the only compliment Melvin ever gives Simon is directed at his tidiness: "Nice packing." He exists in a conservative dog-eat-dog world where everyone fends for themselves, and where there are no helping hands and no free sympathies. He treats Carol's letter of gratitude like an infectious disease, and Nicholson stares at Hunt as if she was an alien: how could his innocuous act result in someone being so open and exposed? And yet she beats herself up for doing so, for putting her dignity above her son's wellbeing, and in a heartbreaking moment, punishes herself for being so selfish, for wanting companionship and normalcy away from sickness. Could Melvin ever have this much self-awareness, this much compassion? Simon says: "Don't force him." He wants Verdell to come over of his own accord. And the audience wants Melvin to make the same steps, not because he has been prodded along and lectured on what is right and wrong, but through his own judgement. And I think eventually, he does make it there.
