DVD Review: As Good as it Gets (dog, waitress, obsessive-compulsive author, comedy)

As Good As It Gets, with Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Cube Gooding (Jr.) and Greg Kinnear (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 1997, 139 minutes)

The Original Grumpy Old Man

It starts with a dog, an OC (Obsessive-Compulsive*) crotchety old man, and a New York City of diverse characters - and they’re all in As Good As It Gets! And of course the dog is a Brussels Griffon**, a brilliant lion-faced actor, in nearly every scene.

Can a dog (mostly one canine star but also on board are a couple of other Grifs as back-ups) and young Helen Hunt breathe life into Jack Nicholson, the man you love to hate? What if this is “as good as it gets”?

Melvin (Nicholson) is an extremely financially successful stay-at-home writer (60-some books).

How does he write women so well, you may ask? He thinks like a man and then takes away reason and accountability!

Is it Affection? Or, is it Bacon?

A Brussels Griffon with a Teddy Bear face and an unrecognizable little body (Having seen the movie many years ago, I mistakenly remembered the dog as a Jack Russell! Oops! It’s so much better the second time around though.), who is tossed down a garbage chute but lives to live temporarily with the person who did the vile deed (can you guess who?).

Although not primarily a dog flick, As Good features a dog as the impetus behind the beginning of change. But can change go far enough? When precisely does the change begin and, more importantly, why? Who does the dog eventually choose?

A Study in Facial Expressions

Facial expressions worthy of Academy Awards – one for Jack (later, The Joker), and one for Helen. You might want to watch As Good with the sound off. . . .

The Requisite Road Trip but no Car Chase

Baltimore, with a restaurant, 5-star hotel and hard shell crabs just south of The Charm City, is the goal in an unconventional road trip, in a convertible no less, near the end of the story. But our characters must, alas, return to The Big Apple and their lives.

Will Nicholson fulfill the words, “You make me want to be a better man”? Watch it again to find out.

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*Obsessive-Compulsives do not step on cracks in the sidewalk or on square tiled floors. The do check that they have locked the door several times, never use the same bar of soap twice, . . . .

**think Ewok in Return of the Jedi