As Good as It Gets Blu-ray Review
Well, maybe not quite that good, but darn good nonetheless.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, June 10, 2012
There's probably no finer example of the changes wrought by the sixties on Hollywood than Jack Nicholson. Could
Nicholson have flourished in the studio system of the thirties or forties, or indeed even in the fifties with the slow and
steady encroachment of television? Though Nicholson was at least passably dashing in his younger years, he wasn't
flat
out matinee idol handsome, and he had a sort of snarky
persona that was distinctly at odds with the glamorous
ethos
of the Golden Age of La-La Land. Seeing Nicholson's early performances now in such films as
The Little Shop of
Horrors (the original),
The Raven and
The Terror, it's at least a
little surprising that Nicholson
went on to become one of the most iconic performers of his generation. Part of that ascent must certainly be due to
the sea change that brought the independent film to the forefront in the late sixties, and Nicholson's contributions to
such legendary outings as
Easy Rider most assuredly helped put him (mostly) in the driver's seat for a career
that really exploded in the seventies. It's really rather amazing at just how quickly Nicholson
did ascend in that
decade, with the one two punch of
Carnal Knowledge and
Five Easy Pieces finally bringing him the
mainstream recognition which had largely eluded him for the early part of his career. By the time Nicholson starred in
As Good As It Gets in 1997, he was largely unassailable as one of the two or three leading male performers of
his generation, and even without really "stretching" in his role of Melvin Udall, he brought home his third Oscar, perhaps
due at least as much to the force of his now beloved curmudgeonly
persona as for any acting brilliance he
brought to the project (but make no mistake about it, he
does bring acting brilliance to the part). But the fact is
probably no other actor
could have played as offensive a character as
Udall, a writer suffering from OCD who hurls insults like Don Rickles crossed with the Energizer Bunny. In less beloved
hands, Udall would have come off as a hopeless, unseemly boor. Nicholson somehow manages to make the character
palatable, if only barely at times. While
As Good As It Gets is perhaps not
quite as good as its rapturous
1997 reviews claimed, it's a showcase for the very idiosyncratic and even peculiar charm that Jack Nicholson brings to
his performances.
James L. Brooks certainly did yeoman duty in the cliché ridden halls of television sitcoms, including working on such less
than stellar outings as
My Mother, The Car before really hitting his stride with such legends as
The Mary
Tyler
Moore Show and
Taxi (not to mention
The Simpsons). All of those years toiling in the grind of
weekly
television might have worn down a lesser talent, but the best thing about
As Good As It Gets is how radiantly
fresh it is so much of the time. Sure, we've seen films about misfits before, even misfits who slowly evolve from hate at
first sight to at least grudging admiration, and quite often more than that. But in the expert hands of Brooks, who co-
wrote and directed the film, the three main characters here are all remarkably vivid, especially when given life by the
likes
of Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear.
We meet Nicholson's Melvin Udall first, as he attempts to dispose (literally) of a neighbor's dog. That neighbor turns out
to be gay artist Simon (Kinnear), a talented if naïve young man who, upon finding out what Melvin has done to his
beloved dog Verdell, still isn't quite able to adequately confront the looming and slightly menacing Melvin. Melvin's OCD
leads him to the same restaurant every day where he insists on being waited on by Carol (Hunt), apparently the only
waitress who can tolerate Melvin's peculiar behavior and frequently extremely insulting mouth. Out of this rather
peculiar fabric of three wounded characters, Brooks and co-scenarist Mark Andrus weave a fascinating tapestry of
interplay that unfolds slowly (
too slowly some might argue, considering the film's almost two and a half hour
length), but which relishes in small character beats instead of grandstanding dramatic (or even comedic) plot
developments.
Simon gets the crap beat out of him by friends of a thuggish kid (Skeet Ulrich) he's been drawing and Carol is dealing
with her dangerously asthmatic son. Into this fray wanders the not very lovable Melvin, who ends up acquitting himself
quite well with regard to both of these people, though not without recurrent stumbles.
As Good As It Gets
derives its emotional impetus from the simple arc of Melvin opening himself up to the vagaries of life (at least insofar as
his highly regimented OCD will let him). At the same time we see some kind of odd evolutions in both Carol and Simon.
Simon, once hopeful and optimistic, almost becomes a counterbalance to Melvin, in that as Melvin becomes relatively
more jovial, Simon sinks into a deep depression. Carol is innately suspicious of any good fortune visiting her working
class life, and that, along with Melvin's tendency toward malapropisms, leads to some rough going between the two.
Perhaps surprisingly for a James L. Brooks film, this is not a movie made up of huge laughs. There
are laughs
galore, some of them quite hearty, but they almost uniformly spring out of the dichotomy of heartache segueing more or
less effortlessly into resignation. A perfect example is a great scene with Carol and her mother, where the mother,
blown away that Melvin has arranged for a private doctor to look after Carol's son, is urging her daughter to let her hair
down a little and enjoy a night on the town. Carol is simply morose, crying hysterically and babbling on about all sorts
of fears, real and imagined. "What do you want, Mother?" she asks, almost viciously. "I want to go out," is the
mother's simple answer. Pause. "Okay," answers Carol calmly, suddenly shifting emotional tenor, and it's a great little
moment, one that easily brings a chuckle.
As Good As It Gets is filled with little moments like that.
There are some niggling problems along the way, including a tendency to introduce supporting characters without
giving them much flesh and blood and relying on shtick to get them through. We therefore get little bits by Cuba
Gooding, Jr. as Simon's agent or Yeardley Smith as an art dealer that do provide some laughs but don't really add up to
much in the long run. Speaking of the long run, the film is too long by at least a half hour, though it's so enjoyable so
much of the time that the meandering pace isn't as problematic as it might have been. The whole subplot of getting
Simon to his parents' home in Baltimore also turns out to be a bit of a dead end, though it at least gets the three main
characters together on a road trip where several dramatic developments ensue.
Even with its (admittedly relatively minor) flaws,
As Good As It Gets benefits from daring to be different. This is
a film that flouts cookie cutter three act plot structures and instead relies on a knowing investigation of the interior lives
of three emotionally fragile characters. Brooks' pacing is expert (notwithstanding the film's somewhat problematic
length) and the performances are simply marvelous. Nicholson and Hunt won well deserved Oscars (and Kinnear was
nominated), and the interaction between the three performers is natural and downright lovable. That's about as good
as it gets when you're dealing with someone as curmudgeonly as Melvin Udall.
