Saturday, February 1, 2014

Year 3 Day 52

movie: As Good as it Gets
starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt
genre: Drama
year: 1997
format: TV edit

plot: A man suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, falls in love with the waitress at his favourite diner, and befriends his gay neighbour after he's injured. The three of them go on a weekend trip, strengthening their friendships.

This is a romantic drama, that sort of bends the rules and blurs the lines of how love is conventionally viewed. I don't want to call it a love triangle, but that is what it is in a sense.  The main character, Melvin, is so unsociable that he pushes people away with rudeness and blunt thinking. It takes a tragic situation with his neighbour Simon, for him to start admitting he's not the only person on the planet. Ironically, Simon becomes the reason for Melvin to get closer to Carole, when he asks her to join them on a short road trip. She in turn, helps Simon recover his desire to paint by getting him to discuss the attack and poses for a painting.
I liked the idea that the Hunt character sort of finds a "whole guy" in the sense that the two males, Nicholson and Greg Kinnear, are each able to supply differently what is missing in her life.  In a sense, they do the same for the Nicholson character by splitting up the emotion and security one normally sees in romantic movies, into Kinnear's character and Hunt's character. 

What do I think I learned?  You can't always find what you are looking for in one place. And you never know where you will find what you're looking for.

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