As Good As It Gets

Moving right along with “Jack Nicholson Month,” we have one of the popular movies ever made, “As Good As It Gets,” released in 1997. The basic story is a chronic sourpuss grump learns the value of love and charity when he is forced to care of his neighbor’s dog.

Meet Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nicholson, described by Empire as “the Archie Bunker of the 90s.” Melvin has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in this outrageous, politically incorrect comedy from the wave that brought us Broadcast News and produces the hit adult cartoon “The Simpsons,” James L. Brooks. Empire mentioned, “Brooks also steered Jack Nicholson to an Oscar in Terms Of Endearment, a feat the duo repeated here.”

Nicholson is on top of his sneering, eyebrow-arching game as Melvin the hater, obnoxious and offensive to everyone who encounters him. He’s racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist and, the cherry on this hater sundae, cruel to small dogs. The only excuse given is that he suffers (believably so) from OCD. Empire described, “Ergo he's nutty as a fruitcake - which gives him license to howl such disgraceful one-liners as would probably get a real person (or an actor less devilishly delicious than Nicholson) beaten up or arrested. “

Melvin earns his living, oddly, writing tasteless romance novels, and lives as reclusively as he can in his Manhattan apartment. One of his obsessive traditions is eating breakfast daily at a café where only tough waitress Carol, played by the actress who played Jamie Buchman from the hit sitcom “Mad About You,” the beautiful Helen Hunt, a single mom with her own stressful sadness, will tolerate Melvin’s criticisms and fight him back.

When Simon (Greg Kinnear), the gay artist who lives across the hall, is hospitalized, old misery-guts Melvin is pressurizes by Simon’s agent (Cuba Gooding Jr.) into caring for his hated neighbor’s ugly but charming dog (Jill the dog) and, of course, bonding is soon started as the dog walks its way into Melvin’s decayed heart. Empire said, “Thus softened up, Melvin is reluctantly but irrevocably goaded into a series of grudging good deeds which are entirely motivated by self-interest but which inch him in the general direction of humanity and improbable but superb redemption.”

Hunt, who for a long time was a TV sitcom star, is wonderfully skilled as comic wordplay as the long-suffering Carol, giving it out as well as she takes it, but she’s also genuine and moving, while former chat show host Kinnear is surprisingly effective in the teary, somebody-needs-a-hug part of the nicely plotted and well-paced happenings. The star trio gets hilarious back-up from Gooding Jr., Yeardley Smith (who voiced Lisa Simpson from “The Simpsons”), veteran Shirley Knight as Carol’s mother, Jesse James as Carol’s son and Skeet Ulrich as the street gangster who brings disaster into Melvin and Simon’s apartment building.

Final Verdict: A healthy sense of irony is required to accept the unacceptable outbursts from Melvin’s mouth and the less nasty jokes, the film being intended in the spirit of Nicholson’s sing to Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

This is another believable role that Nicholson played in. He gets all the traits of someone with OCD down just pitch perfect. I know this because I have friends who have OCD so I know how they act. This also has another one of the best quotes ever: “You make me want to be a better man.” Who knows if that has ever worked on a girl before, but I won’t say if you should try it. Still, check this movie out when you get the chance.

Look out next week where we look at another review for “Jack Nicholson Month.”