As Good as It Gets (DVD, 1998)
Jack Nicholson is Melvin Udall. He is one of the most despicable people that you will ever meet. He has all sorts of compulsive behaviors, along with a "zero" tolerance for anyone else' feelings ore needs. He is a romance novelist, who in literary circles is very popular, but pretty much despised by everyone with whom he comes into contact. He lives in an expensive apartment, and has a gay neighbor who is a struggling artist, Greg Kinnear. You might say that Melvin is totally non-prejudice. . . He hates everybody! He goes through life like this "Toxic cloud of bad odor", irritating everyone in his path, and ironically doesn't realize it!
Every day, Melvin shows at the same restaurant for breakfast and dinner. He ahs to have the very same table every time, orders basically the same meal, brings his own plastic eating utensils (sealed in plastic), and must have the same waitress every time. Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) plays the poor waitress who "tolerates" his rudeness and his "high and mighty - better than you" attitude. Nobody else in the place can stand him. Helen has a child who is sickly, and has to be rushed to the hospital regularly. She is really at her whits end.
One day, Melvin being himself, finds his neighbor's little dog wandering in the hall, and just because he is Melvin, drops the poor little furball down the mail/package shoot, and it winds up in the basement, luckily uninjured. Melvin plays his nasty, verbally abusive, self and denies any knowledge of the dog's whereabouts. Greg's agent, played by Cuba Gooding, finds the dog in the basement, and immediately knows what happened. He quietly knocks on Melvin's door, and when he answers, he grabs him and threatens to beat him to a bloody pulp if he ever again is mean to that little dog or rude or disrespectful to Greg ever again. Melvin is duly scared by this.
The next morning, Melvin goes to breakfast and Carol isn't at work. Being the absolute total jerk and total piece of excrement that he is, he goes to her home to demand that she go to work so that he can get his breakfast! No matter, that she has been up all night in the hospital emergency room with her child. She tells him off. For the first time, he realizes what a jerk he is. The next day, he beggs himself back in - against the objections of everywhere there, she relents. In his twisted way, Melvin is attracted to Carol, and makes arrangements for her son to see a good doctor at his expense.
Then all of a sudden, Greg gets assaulted in a home robbery, and beat up and has to be hospitalized. Cuba Gooding forces Melvin to care for Gregs dog. Soon, the dog and Melvin are inseparable. Upon release, Greg is scared and financially broke, and losing his apartment. The little dog is now a bridge between them. Melvin is slowly becoming human.
He makes a trip with Greg and gets Carol to come along to go see Greg's parents for help. They have disowned him because he is gay. Over the course of the trip, and his closeness to Carol, he is trying to express himself to her, but hasn't a clue. He really needs her, but can't tell her. When Greg's parents are still stand-offish he abandons the attempt. When they get back to NYC, Melvin invites Greg to live in his spare room. Greg then tries to steer Melvin towards Carol in a way that he can show his new side and personality. They become friends, and a relationship is budding.Read full review
