As Good as It Gets

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As Good as It Gets
original film poster
Directed by	James L. Brooks
Produced by	Laura Ziskin
Written by	Mark Andrus (story) Mark Andrus & James L. Brooks (screenwriters)
Starring	Jack Nicholson Helen Hunt Greg Kinnear Cuba Gooding Jr. Shirley Knight Skeet Ulrich
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography	John Bailey
Editing by	Richard Marks
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	December 19, 1997
Running time	139 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

As Good as It Gets is a 1997 film which tells the story of an obsessive-compulsive, cantankerous, racist, homophobic writer named Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) who, because of his anxiety disorder, lives in a world that has shrunk to about the size of his apartment and the books he authors. Nevertheless, and despite himself, he befriends his regular waitress (Helen Hunt), a single mother, and his homosexual neighbour (Greg Kinnear). It is a romantic comedy played out among flawed people in an imperfect and postmodern world.

1 Primary cast
2 Plot
3 Trivia
4 Awards won
5 Award nominations
6 External links

[edit] Primary cast

Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall
Helen Hunt as Carol Connelly
Greg Kinnear as Simon Bishop - Melvin's neighbour
Cuba Gooding Jr. as Frank Sachs - an art dealer, and Simon's friend
Shirley Knight as Beverly Connelly - Carol's mother
Skeet Ulrich as Vincent Lopiano
Yeardley Smith as Jackie Simpson
Lupe Ontiveros as Nora Manning
Jill the Dog: Verdell (trained by Mathilde DeCagny
Danielle Spencer: Veterinarian

[edit] Plot

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Simon (Greg Kinnear), a run of the mill artist and neighbour to famous author, Melvin Udall(Jack Nicholson), is hospitalized after his home is burglarised and he is assaulted by acquaintances of a male model he had been painting. Simon's agent and friend Frank (Cuba Gooding Jr.), having nobody else to turn to, ends up demanding that Udall take care of Simon's dog, Verdell, while he is in the hospital.
This serves as a severe strain on Melvin, a recluse who suffers from OCD and is able to cope only by leading a life of strict regularity, combined with an extremely rude, sarcastic, defensive personality that keeps others away. Ironically though, Melvin is a romance novel writer by profession.
Although Melvin's life is intolerably complicated by having to deal with the dog and its homosexual owner, he is drawn more and more out of his shell and into their lives, almost powerless under the influence of the amazing intelligence and sweetness of Verdell.
Simon returns from the hospital to his apartment to convalesce, and Melvin is distraught at the thought of giving up the dog which he had hated so intensely at first, but ended up bonding with. Melvin is saved when Simon needs more time to regain full mobility and independence. Melvin agrees, begrudgingly, to watch the dog for a while longer, even while being internally thrilled at not losing his new companion.
Because Melvin is such a buffoon when it comes to social interaction, even when he attempts to be helpful to Simon, Simon takes it as hazing. Furthermore, as his most recent art show was an utter failure. Simon sinks into depression as the medical bills pile up and all but his one friend, Frank, desert him. To make matters worse, Verdell appears to prefer Melvin to Simon.
Eventually Simon sinks deeper into depression as he continues trying to avoid facing the reality of his situation. His few remaining friends stage an intervention, forcing him to confront having to give up his dreams, sell most of everything he owns, and most devastatingly to ask his parents for money. He has been estranged from his parents for a long time, ever since his father threw him out.
Melvin is stressed by the sudden disruption to his life and the many accommodations he is forced to make for Verdell. Eventually Melvin does attempt to give Verdell back to Simon, but the dog has grown to love Melvin and doesn't want to go back to Simon. Melvin tries to spare Simon's feelings by claiming the dog only likes Melvin because of the treats Melvin feeds him, but Simon can see that even his dog has abandoned him, and sinks even further into depression.

Melvin & Carol at the restaurant.

Melvin is further challenged when his regular waitress Carol (Helen Hunt), from the restaurant he eats breakfast at daily, has left her job to take care of her chronically ill child. Melvin visits his publisher and convinces her to have her husband (who is a doctor) make a house call and take care of the child at Melvin's expense. His motivation is initially to get his waitress back so that he can return to his daily routine, but we come to see that he is also actively working to become a part of Carol's life.
Frank convinces Melvin to drive Simon to see his parents in Baltimore. Uncomfortable at the thought of spending several days alone with Simon, Melvin convinces Carol to go along as well, by insisting that accepting his help with her son obligated her to go. On the trip, Melvin feels threatened by Simon because of how well he instantly clicks with Carol. Being in competition with Simon for Carol's attention, combined with the stress of attempting to control his own emotions and social interactions with grace (which he has little) proves too much and he completely alienates Carol. Despite trying to keep him at arms length, Carol had been finding herself starting to fall for him. The best example of this is when Carol threatens to leave because Melvin insults her dress. Melvin gets her to stay by conceding he took pills (and he hates pills) to help with his O.C.D. because she made him want to be a better man. Carol surprised by the flattery of the remarks, admits it was the best compliment she has ever received. However, Melvin ruins the moment by explaining part of the reason for inviting her was to see if a gay man would be attracted to her.
Simon never ends up reconnecting with his parents (but does speak with his mother over the phone) but he ends up having a breakthrough with his art, which he had been unable to even touch since the attack.
When the trio returns from the trip, still deeply hurt by Melvin, Carol tells him that she would like to never see him again.
By this time though, the three have been inexorably drawn into each other's lives; rather than see Simon turned onto the street, Melvin moves him into a spare room in his apartment with his possessions. Simon tries to get Carol to give Melvin another chance but she refuses. Eventually Melvin becomes more and more miserable until Simon convinces him (feeling perhaps that Carol really does care for him and that they would be good together) that he must go and see her no matter what. This surprises even Melvin at Simon's attitude, whom he thought his sexual orientation would have made him "sharp and sensitive", instead of just sharp as Simon acts direct toward his friend.
Upon his arrival at an inopportune time of the night and mostly because of her underlying but obvious attraction for him (even though she is fighting it), he gets her to listen to him. He makes a good case for himself using his charm and eloquence. He is even able to show his determination to make things work with her by intentionally stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk instead of avoiding them which was previously impossible for him because of his OCD. The film ends with them walking into an uncertain but potentially bright future as they walk into a bakery that has just opened early in the morning.

[edit] Trivia

The film features several cameos from writer/directors such as Shane Black of Lethal Weapon, as Helen Hunt's fed up boss, Harold Ramis (Caddyshack) as a caring doctor, Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse) as a bus passenger and Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Return of the Jedi) as Jack Nicholson's stubborn psychiatrist.
Skeet Ulrich was offered the role of Simon but was said to have declined. Ulrich later played the role of Vincent, the gay hustler whose picture Simon paints. To develop his character, Ulrich had Vincent fixated on Brad Pitt. According to Ulrich, Pitt approved for him to do so and simply instructed not to make him look foolish.
The cable TV series Cinema Secrets revealed that Verdell's trick of gingerly stepping over cracks in the sidewalk was actually achieved through special effects: small glass barriers were placed in the cracks, which the dog stepped over, then the barriers were digitally removed later.
The doctor's office is actually a classroom from the local school.
The children running down the street to catch Melvin's taxi were from the third grade class of the local Catholic school (Holy Name of Jesus- Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn)
In the film, Yeardley Smith plays Jackie Simpson, in The Simpsons, she is the voice of Lisa Simpson.