Jack Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a romance novelist who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder. In addition to his often unmanageable behavior, Melvin seems to take pride in offending people and spends most of his time alone because others can't stand to be around him. One of the few people who can handle Melvin, however, is the waitress who serves him lunch everyday, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt). She's a single mother raising her young son who suffers from severe asthma. On occasion Melvin also sees his neighbor Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear) although the two men have nothing in common. Simon is an artist whose gay lifestyle Melvin enjoys criticizing plus Melvin likes tormenting Simon's small dog. Due to a chain of events that start with Simon being brutally attacked, this trio forms an unlikely bond that ultimately changes them all.
In an interview after the film was complete, James L. Brooks stated, "I honestly couldn't think of anyone who could have played the part of the lead other than Jack Nicholson. I had to think of someone who could play this monster, but not completely turn the audience off, someone who could in the end be loved. Jack was just the only choice." Actually, Brooks had briefly considered Jim Carrey for the role but later admitted his casting "would have made it a completely different movie." Nicholson, on the other hand, wasn't so sure he was right for the part at first. At one point during filming, he offered Brooks the chance to replace him because he didn't think his performance was what Brooks wanted. Nicholson recalls, "It was one of the toughest movies he and I will ever do."
The biggest challenge in creating the Melvin Udall character was developing his fragile mental and emotional state without totally alienating audiences. Brooks said, "There's something wrong with Melvin, but the nature of what is wrong with him is that he spends his life disguising what's wrong with him. It was a big decision to make it a clinical illness. It's an illness that most of us can relate to. We all get obsessed, and we are all compulsive about certain things - just not clinically so." Although Nicholson insists that Melvin "lives nowhere in me," he sees the character as "one of the most lovable people I've ever played. The job of the film is to redeem him."
At the time, Helen Hunt was appearing in the television series Mad About You while making As Good As It Gets so she had to work her shoot schedule around the series, working during the show's winter hiatus. Hunt has nothing but praise for the script, "It's my favorite story that I've read in years....I can't imagine another part coming along that I would want to do as badly as this one."
In a decidedly offbeat bit of casting, Greg Kinnear went against his romantic leading man image (Sabrina, 1995) to take on the role of Melvin's victimized gay neighbor Simon, scoring a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in the process. In an interview, he later admitted "there was a storyline cut out between Simon and the character played by Skeet Ulrich, a hustler. In the original script, there was a little flirty thing happening. The fact of the matter is, there was a whole secondary plot about a percolating love story between the two of us. It takes place in my apartment, and we're talking about life. The flirting is all done through words but done very, very effectively. But much of that storyline was lost just because the original cut of the movie was considerably longer than it is now. That was a part of the movie that I had to go through a bit of a mourning process on."
Principal photography on As Good As It Gets occurred in New York City with locations used in Greenwich Village and the Prospect Park district of Brooklyn. The film ended up receiving seven Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Musical Score. Both Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt received Oscars and Golden Globes for their roles in As Good As It Gets and the film also received the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Picture.
Director: James L. Brooks
Producer: James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson
Screenplay: Mark Andrus, James L. Brooks
Cinematography: John Bailey
Art Direction: Philip Toolin
Music: Hans Zimmer, Judith Owens, Jimi Hendrix
Cast: Jack Nicholson (Melvin Udall), Helen Hunt (Carol Connelly), Greg Kinnear (Simon Bishop), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Frank Sachs), Shirley Knight (Beverly Connelly), Skeet Ulrich (Vincent Lopiano), Harold Ramis (Dr. Bettes), Yeardley Smith (Jackie Simpson).
C-139m. Letterboxed.
By Deborah L. Johnson
