Helen Hunt Filmography Part 9: As Good As It Gets
An amazing Helen Hunt performance in an insanely frustrating movie.
As Good As It Gets (1997) frustrates me SO MUCH!
I want to like this movie because Helen Hunt is SO good, but this movie just doesn’t work. I have watched it three times, twice in the last 3 months, and I just can’t like it.
The movie is essentially a beauty and the beast retelling, with Helen Hunt as the beautiful human being and Nicholson as the beastly neighbor and restaurant patron. Per the trope Melvin is transformed (sort of) by Carol, and they unfortunately become romantically involved.
Helen Hunt plays Carol Connelly, a waitress and single mom who lives with her chronically ill son and her mother in an apartment so small that she sleeps on the couch in the living room. Hunt earned an Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, and she absolutely deserves it.
Greg Kinnear plays Simon Bishop a gay artist and dog dad, who is brutally attacked as his apartment is being robbed.
Jack Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, misanthropic, antisemitic, asshole who also happens to have clinical OCD. (I want to make it clear that the two things are separate. One can have OCD and not be an“absolute horror of a human being” as Melvin is aptly dubbed.)
After having previously sent Simon’s dog, Verdell, down the trash chute in their apartment building, Melvin is coerced into watching Verdell while Simon is in the hospital after his attack. Melvin becomes quite attached to the dog, prompting a small awakening of his soul. As he spends time with Verdell, Carol, and Simon, Melvin starts to do some generous things and to think a little bit about other people.
In a grand gesture to Carol, Melvin pays for decent medical care for her son, Spencer, something she cannot afford. However, none of his acts of kindness to Carol are altruistic; they all have strings attached. Initially he finances Spencer’s medical treatment, so Carol can come back to work, which is important to Melvin as she is the only waitress who can tolerate his abhorrent behavior. But quickly he decides he wants to sleep with her, and it gets creepy real fast.
Carol recognizes that accepting such a gift from Melvin makes her indebted to him, but as her mother points out “it’s not stockings or a necklace. You don’t send this one back” because dammit when it comes to your kid breathing or not breathing, you do whatever you have to.
Side Note: American healthcare sucks. As this movie shows, if you have a chronic medical condition or a serious accident, you are absolutely screwed. You will be either made homeless and forced to beg your toxic parents for support. Or you will be literally forced to whore yourself with Jack Nicholson, so your child can breathe. But thank God we’re not like those socialist Europeans and their universal healthcare systems.
Throughout the movie Melvin uses this grand gesture to manipulate Carol into doing a lot of things that she doesn’t want to do. He shows up to her house uninvited and lectures her son on manner. When she rightly objects to this invasion of her privacy and unacceptable behavior toward her son, he accuses her of being mean, and as a naturally kind and generous person, she relents and APOLOGIZES TO HIM!
Let’s make this clear for all the 2’s and people pleasers reading this: Boundaries are not mean. Protecting yourself and your children is not mean. Narcissists and assholes do not deserve a place in your life. You are not responsible for taking care of people who are toxic and unsafe.
The problem is Melvin is too terrible and his reclamation too weak. The things he says in the first act are beyond the pale. I’m pretty sure they were beyond the pale in 1977, I know they were beyond the pale in 1997 when this movie came out, and in 2023 we have a whole new layer of ways in which Melvin is beyond the pale.
Also from a casting standpoint, Jack Nicholson is too old and too creepy for this role. I say this scientifically.
You may recall from the post on Trancers the age discrepancy calculation is:
(Older Partner’s Age/2) + 7 years = minimum appropriate age of romantic interest
In 1997 Jack Nicholson was 60 which makes the minimum appropriate age of a romantic partner 37. Helen Hunt is 34.
Now I know the movies don’t work like the real world as far as age and men and romance. Two of my all time favorite romantic movies are Charade and To Catch a Thief. In these films Cary Grant is 59 to Audrey Hepburn’s 34, and 51 to Grace Kelly's 26. Failing miserably to satisfy the calculation.
The primary difference between Nicholson and Grant is that prior to making these Winter/Spring romances, Cary Grant had spent over 30 years demonstrating that he was one of the most charming, suave, romantic leading men while being just bi-sexual enough to be non-threatening.
Seriously, for an industry with a very strong “don’t say gay” policy, Cary Grant spent more time on screen in women’s bathrobes than is entirely straight.
Nicholson on the other had spent his career playing the most creepy, psychotic, unstable assholes. His stock in trade was being a menacing and threatening presence.
I consulted a couple lists of Jack Nicholson movies and the most popular/highest rated films prior to 1997 include some variation of the following:
The Shining
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Chinatown
Batman
A Few Good Men
Not one of these roles is a charming romantic lead. Most of them are deliberately creepy or psychotic.
I’m not saying he isn’t a talented actor. I am saying if this guy showed up to date your daughter or best friend you would be very, very worried for her.
In 2023 as I’m watching this, I cannot get past the emotional and financial manipulation. All I see is Melvin’s toxicity, and I’m very worried that Helen Hunt—I mean Carol—is getting into an abusive relationship. And I’m really mad because the two other characters in Carol’s life who should be supporting her boundaries and looking out for her, namely her mother and her friend Simon, are actively pushing her into this relationship. It’s unforgivable really.
She deserved better from you, Simon.
I feel so strongly about this because single mom’s have rights because of Helen Hunt’s performance in this movie.
I do not have words to describe how seen I felt, watching her embody the stress and struggle of life as a single parent. I don’t usually cry in movies, but I did in this one.
When she cries about the loneliness and the isolation and the lack of physical connection, she cries for all of us. When she almost collapses in relief at having the doctor help carry the weight of Spencer’s illness, it’s a relief we all long for. When that relief turns into an unmooring of her identity, we feel adrift. When she desperately wants someone to take her out and dance with her, she bears witness to our longing to be loved and romanced.
When she finally relents and kisses Jack Nicholson, we feel betrayed. We placed so much hope in her, and we know that she, and we as well, deserve so much better. This cannot be as good as it gets. That’s too fucking depressing.
It’s even more depressing because while watching the movie, I came up with seven ways they could have made it better. This movie could totally work without Carol and Melvin ending up together romantically. Here are my suggestions
Carol has a new found sense of freedom given Spencer’s improved health, so now would be a great time for her to explore what she really wants out of her life. Her previous identity was so entwined with Spencer’s health and the stress of taking care of him; she has undoubtedly lost touch with herself. Some personal growth and development and awareness and self-love would be a beautiful thing to see Carol embrace.
Carol builds on her friendship with Simon. Theirs is not a romantic relationship, but it would be delightful to see their love and friendship flourish as they support and build each other up.
Carol makes some friends. She doesn’t seem to have any friends presumably because she’s been too busy taking care of Spencer. Now that he’s okay, she needs to get some more friends, preferably some who will tell her to stay the hell away from Melvin.
Carol gets a better job and can move out of her mom’s apartment. Melvin can even help with this as long as there are no strings attached.
Melvin actually goes to therapy and works to become a less terrible human rather than just saying he “want[s] to be a better man” so he can get in bed with Carol.
Romantic relationship option a). Make Simon’s friend, Frank, not gay. Simon and/or Melvin set them up. I don’t like erasing gay characters, but if you want to keep the character list concise this would be a good way to do it. Frank is funny and smart and protective and rich and not an asshole.
Romantic relationship option b). Melvin has an estranged son/nephew who moves to NY and stays with Melvin while finding an apartment. Ideally he is played by Paul Rudd or Hugh Jackman. He immediately recognizes how amazing Carol is and how toxic Melvin is, and he tries to mitigate Melvin’s terribleness. This allows for growth on Melvin’s part to repair a fractured family relationship. Since in my version we never even introduce Melvin’s sexual interest in Carol, he and Simon can work together to set them up. This strengthens all the inter-character dynamics, and Carol gets a happy romantic ending, which I fully support.
I like this idea so much I just might write an AU fan fiction and make everything better. Let me know if you would read that.
Seriously, this would be 1000% better…
