Daily Dialogue — February 4, 2015

Melvin [crying while playing piano]: Over a dog. Over an ugly dog.

— As Good As It Gets (1997), screenplay by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks, story by Mark Andrus

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pets.

Trivia: In one scene the dog starts mimicking Jack Nicholson by stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk. The filmmakers accomplished this by placing little obstacles on the cracks so that the dog had to step over them. They then removed the obstacles digitally in post-production.

Dialogue On Dialogue: In movie after movie, we see animals taken in as pet humanize people. Verdell in As Good As It Gets is a great example, the first individual to ‘invade’ Melvin’s personal space, his apartment. The dog serves as a bridge for Melvin in his transformation, helping him to get in touch with his softer emotional self, as he does here, crying when he has to return Verdell to its owner Simon.

If you have any suggestions for this week’s theme, please post in comments.