AS GOOD AS IT GETS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Jack Nicholson plays a misanthropic
apartment dweller who makes a hobby of being nasty
to people. When he is pulled into relationships
with a waitress and his gay neighbor he begins to
come out of his shell and show a little humanity.
The plot twists are all fairly predictable, but
James L. Brooks give us some characters we can care
about and an amiable plot. One can almost see
this as a pilot for a TV comedy series. Rating: 6
(0 to 10), 1 (-4 to +4)
James L. Brooks has built a career being the executive producer on some of the most popular TV situation comedies including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda," "Taxi," "The Tracy Ullman Show," and "The Simpsons." His touch is comedy with a strong dose of human character, especially characters with foibles. His film-work has been more spotty but includes TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and BROADCAST NEWS. His new film AS GOOD AS IT GETS is more like his TV series than it is like his better films. In it he tells the story of a solitary misanthrope, a hermit living in is big city, who finally discovers his humanity and finds joy in relating to the very people he despised previously, not at all unlike Ebenezer Scrooge. The film's release around Christmas time only exaggerates the parallels to Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Melvin Udall (played with the usual gusto by Jack Nicholson) is a boy-man who lives by himself in a New York City apartment building. And by himself is just how he likes it since there is nothing he can see that is very positive in his neighbors or anyone else for him to care about. He is finishing his 62nd book in a series of romance novels whose popularity he ascribes to the fact that he actually loathes women. His hobby is candor raised to the level of a martial art. There is a firm mutual hatred between him and his apartment neighbors, particularly Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear of SABRINA), a gay artist. Simon's dog messes the hallway, and Melvin wants to see the little dog destroyed. Melvin's favorite person in the world (meaning he has only a mild dislike for her) is Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt of TWISTER) the waitress who serves him at a local restaurant. Circumstances--with a strong assist from Simon's professional manager (Cuba Gooding, Jr.)--force Melvin to take Simon's dog into his apartment and care for him. In spite of all his worst instincts, Melvin finds himself actually liking the dog and this opens a chink in his shell that allows him to start relating to both Simon and Carol. What follows one of the last act of A CHRISTMAS CAROL played in slow motion. Melvin also takes an interest in medical care for Carol's sickly (dare I say "Tiny- Tim-like") child.
The film itself is sporadically funny and occasionally touching, but offers little that is not available on TV. One difference between this film and a TV comedy is the shock value of Nicholson's comments and insults. Melvin goes well beyond the limits of Archie Bunker or even of the Simpsons making obscene suggestions about Simon's sex life. One can do that in a movie and not face TV censorship, I guess, but they do little to improve the viewing experience.
Beyond the go-for-the-throat comments, Brooks has done here little that he could not have done on the set of a situation comedy. Certainly this is a story told on a smaller scale than his TERMS OF ENDEARMENT or BROADCAST NEWS. The script, which Brooks co-authored with Mark Andrus is funny only on a hit and miss basis. Perhaps part of the problem is that once it is established what a creep our main character is, the audience has less emotional investment in seeing him rewarded with a happy ending. One is torn between whether the best ending has him finding happiness or being hit by a truck.
This is certainly one of Brooks's more minor contributions to American entertainment. The film is watchable, but tepid. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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