AS GOOD AS IT GETS
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1997 David N. Butterworth
Rating: **1/2 (Maltin scale)
Meet Melvin Udall, a misanthropic, racist, homophobic bigot with an intense dislike of dogs.
Well, one dog in particular, perhaps--Verdell, a button-cute Brussels Griffon from across the hall. Melvin's had about all he's gonna take from this pint-sized urinating machine and, in a scene we've all seen in the three month's worth of previews, shoves him down the trash chute. Given that old stalwart "no animals were mistreated during the making of this motion picture," Verdell shows up again a little rumpled--doggie dignity included--but none the worse for wear.
This initial man vs. beast confrontation in "As Good As It Gets" does little to endear Melvin to us. After disposing of the furry little critter this reclusive writer of romance novels holes himself up in his Manhattan apartment (turning the lock five times very deliberately) and proceeds to wash his hands in scalding water, wasting two entire bars of Neutrogena in the process.
Melvin, you see, suffers from a chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it's not long before we witness further outrageous behaviors on his part: Melvin insulting Jews, blacks, and Panamanians alike with vicious, political incorrectness; Melvin twisting himself pretzel-like along a busy street in order to avoid stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk. And so on.
Later still we realize that Melvin isn't someone to be hated, however. Misanthropy isn't a choice for him; it's a disease.
When Verdell's owner Simon is badly beaten during a robbery, Melvin is "entrusted" with caring for the cow-eyed canine. (Simon, a neighboring, almost-successful artist is affectionately played by Greg Kinnear.) During Simon's convalescence, Verdell has an extraordinarily humanizing effect on the antisocial author.
It's hard to imagine anyone but Jack Nicholson playing Melvin. He's terrific, in that Jack Nicholson kind of way, and is likely to garner an Oscar nomination for his ebullient, eyebrow-centric performance. Helen Hunt plays Carol, a struggling single mother with an asthmatic son at home. She's the only waitress in the coffee shop that Melvin frequents who can stand him for more than a few minutes. Hunt's puffy-cheeked nervous fidgeting isn't much of an extension of her Jamie Buchman character on TV's "Mad About You."
Things clunk, rather than click, between the two of them.
James L. Brooks, the successful producer of both big and small screen projects--last year's "Jerry Maguire" and TV's "The Tracey Ullman Show" and "The Simpsons" to name a few--has only a small list of directing credits. Clearly he chooses his directing assignments carefully and clearly he likes to employ Nicholson, who won an Academy Award for his supporting work in "Terms of Endearment," and provided "Broadcast News" with a wonderful, uncredited cameo.
As is typical with any Brooks production, the writing in "As Good As It Gets" (by the director and Mark Andrus) has a depth that's rare by Hollywood standards but, at 138 minutes, the film stumbles along and at times seems contrived. That Carol should settle for someone as beyond-her-years as Melvin seems more a product of casting than it does story construct.
That said, "As Good As It Gets" is decent, if not vintage, James L. Brooks, made all the more palatable by that man Jack Nicholson.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu
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