AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1998)
Director James L. Brooks
Cast Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear
Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nicholson, does not get along with people due to his extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder and cynicism. At a restaurant, he forces people off from his regular table and uses cutlery he brings from home. Of course, others do not want to get along with such an odd man, also.
Would Udall have been this way from birth? Ironically, Mr. Vituperate is a romance writer who writes beautiful love stories. This goes to show that there probably isn’t a cynical vituperate deep down inside. However, he doesn’t even try to come out as he is surrounded by the wall he has built around himself.
One day, he is given a job, to take care of his neighbor Simon’s dog, Verdell. In the beginning, he hates Verdell but then he gradually changes. Not only does he take care of Verdell very well, but he also gets to know a problem Simon and Carol have. And, he unconditionally helps them. His wall starts to crumble. He has found humanity within himself.
Udall discovers that he no longer locks the door. He used to check it more than five times every time. He is coming out from the extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Udall helped Simon and Carol but he has rather received help from them. They have changed him. While on a trip they take by chance, Carol asks him for a compliment and he inappropriately says he takes psychiatric drugs. Carol seems disappointed. However, Udall, worthy of being a romantic writer, depicts his heart romantically. He says he doesn’t want to take drugs but has to because of her. He continues, “You make me wanna be a better man.”
Haven’t we also constructed a wall inside our minds? Aren’t we feeling depressed and exhausted as we are trapped there, turning our backs on the world? How would it be if we broke through the wall and lived becoming one with the world? Everyone will then live of one mind in one world, rather than living in the different worlds divided with walls. Everyone will care for, love and earnestly help one another. If the world could become so, the people of the world just need to break down their walls and come out.
I imagine the world where everyone lives happily as one…
