Monthly Reader: “As Good As It Gets” — Part Two

In the first part of our analysis of August’s monthly reader As Good As It Gets, written by Mark Andrus & James L. Brooks, we provided a scene-by-scene breakdown of the script, and noted two unusual aspects to the story: (1) While Melvin (Jack Nicholson) is the story’s Protagonist, it’s also possible to look at the plot through Carol (Helen Hunt) and Simon’s eyes (Greg Kinnear) as a protagonist — because both of them go through significant personal transformations. (2) Due to Melvin’s personality construct and mental health condition (OCD), he often demonstrates abrasive behavior in public. This makes for a unique challenge for the screenwriters: To create a Protagonist who is both unlikeable but also sympathetic.

In this analysis, we will look at Melvin’s character. Arguably, he is the story’s Protagonist:

* The story is framed — beginning and ending — with his character.

* His character has the most screen time of any character in the script.

* The story is told largely through his perspective.

* Melvin is the at the center of the Melvin-Carol-Simon triangle, the only reason the three characters come together.

* Melvin goes through the most significant and biggest personal transformation.

Here is my take on the character archetype breakdown of the script with Melvin as the P:

Protagonist: Melvin
Nemesis: Melvin’s obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Attractor: Carol
Mentor: Simon
Trickster: Frank, Spencer, Verdell

Who is the Protagonist? Melvin

What does he want? He wants to be left alone.

What does he need? He needs to be able to sustain social relationships, most especially with Carol.

What’s keeping him from that goal? His obsessive abrasive behavior. It’s not just the OCD, but a lifetime of learning to live with his condition. Defense mechanisms, coping skills, behaviors and tactics Melvin was forced to develop in order to survive. Fortunately he found a vocation that could sustain him financially — writing. But writing is a job necessitating solitude which, on the one hand, fits comfortably with his psychological construct — keeping him apart from social interaction much of the time — but also exacerbating his condition by reinforcing it, hour after hour spent alone.

Who is most connected with Melvin’s emotional development (heart)?
Carol. Of all the relationships Melvin develops in the story — Simon, Verdell, Frank — it is his connection with Carol that is the most important. Clearly he is smitten with her well before FADE IN. We can assume he’s been eating at the restaurant where Carol works and insisting that she serve him his food for a long time. The nature of that ‘working’ relationship — he as customer, she as waitress — was Melvin’s ad hoc method to share however many minutes he could with a woman he has come to admire and even have romantic feelings for. Certainly his OCD is a contributing factor to him requiring Carol to be his waitress. But his OCD is not the voice behind this dialogue, part of Melvin’s final compliment to Carol in the script:

MELVIN
 Just let me talk.
 (gathers himself
 with uncertainty,
 then:)
 I’m the only one on the face of
 the earth who realizes that you’re
 the greatest woman on earth. I’m
 the only one who appreciates how
 amazing you are in every single
 thing you do — in every single
 thought you have… in how you
 are with Spencer — Spence…
 (he has reached
 her)
 … in how you say what you mean
 and how you almost always mean
 something that’s all about being
 straight and good…

ON CAROL

She stands on the precipice of being transported away
from the logic which has been her lifeline.

MELVIN
I think most people miss that
about you and I watch wondering
how they can watch you bring them
food and clear their dishes and
never get that they have just met
the greatest woman alive…

“I think most people miss that about you and I watch wondering how they can watch you bring them food and clear their dishes and never get that they have just met the greatest woman alive.” Those are the words of a man who has not only observed Carol for a long time, he has seen her, he has gotten her, he knows that she is special. Note the ironic subtext in this last side: All these ‘normal’ people in the restaurant, they don’t ‘see’ you, but me, an ‘abnormal’ person, I do see you.

And let’s not forget what Melvin does for a living: He writes romance novels. In fact, in the script, he finishes his 62nd book. 62 books! That’s a lot of romance. Then there’s this exchange with his publisher’s assistant Zoe:

As Melvin waits, Zoe summons her moxie.

ZOE
I can’t resist. You usually move
through here so quickly and I have
so many questions I want to ask
you. You have no idea what your
work means to me.

MELVIN
What’s it mean?

ZOE
That somebody out there knows what
it’s like to be…
(taps her head and heart)
in here.

MELVIN
Oh God, this is like a nightmare.

ZOE
Aw come on, just a couple of
questions — how hard is that?

As he hits the button, wipes his fingers, hits the button
etc.

ZOE
How do you write women so well?

MELVIN
(as he turns
toward her)
I think of a man and take away
reason and accountability.

The fan is jolted as the elevator doors open and close.

Melyin’s ‘punch line’ is certainly memorable, but let’s not overlook a key point made by Zoe earlier: Melvin “knows what it’s like to be… in here” [a woman’s head and heart], he knows how to write women “so well.” I think a core aspect of Melvin’s character, clouded by his abrasive public behavior, is he is a romantic.

Up to FADE IN, I think it’s fair to suggest that Carol has been Melvin’s only semblance of a ‘normal’ social relationship, one he’s rigged through the customer-waitress dynamic. But once FADE IN hits, a chain of events happens — beginning with Melvin tossing Verdell down the garbage chute — that upsets the customer-waitress paradigm, forcing Melvin out of his protective-abrasive defense and into the messy, illogical, and chaotic world of ‘normal’ relationship — none more important than his burgeoning romance with Carol. It is in his pursuit of her as a lover that Melvin is tugged out of his insular world and into the ‘extraordinary’ world of normal interrelationships.

Who is most connected to Melvin’s intellectual development (head)?
Simon — because he and Melvin share their own special connection: They are both ‘wounded souls. Simon’s ‘internal’ wounds extend back to his youth and upbringing — remember the way his character is introduced: “Simon has been born and raised with Gothic horror and it’s strange that what that stew of trauma has produced is a gifted, decent man” — and after his vicious beating externalized literally on his body, then with his financial ills, and the crushing realization over time that the people he thought were his friends are not.

There are two moments that symbolize the Protagonist — Mentor dynamic between Simon and Melvin. The first is this brutally honest confession from Simon, who finds himself at his emotional nadir, sharing it with none other than this jerk — Melvin — who has tormented him in the past:

Melvin has made for the door… Simon blocks him.

SIMON
So the life I was trying for is
over. The life I had is gone and
I am feeling so damn sorry for
myself that it is difficult to
breathe. Right times for you — 
huh, Melvin. The gay neighbor is
terrified…
(a sudden screamed
word surprises them
both)
Terrified… Lucky you, you’re
here for rock bottom… me
wallowing in self-pity in front of
you, you absolute horror of a
human being…

The sheer force of Simon’s honesty pierces Melvin’s “the best defense is a good offense (read: abrasive behavior)”. Later on, we should not be surprised that when Melvin is on the ropes emotionally about what to do with Carol, he exposes his core ‘self’ to Simon:

MELVIN
 I don’t know… Let me sleep on it
 and figure it out.
 (then)
 Because I’m stuck! Can’t go back
 to what I had… She’s evicted me
 from my life.

SIMON
Did you like it that much?

MELVIN
(furiously)
It was better than this… Look,
you, I’m very intelligent. If
you’re going to give me advice or
conversation or consolation or
hope, you got to be better than
you’re doing. If you can’t be at
least momentarily interesting than
shut the hell up. I’m drowning
and you’re describing water.

Setting up Simon’s ultimate dispensation of wisdom:

SIMON
 You know who you want. I’ll take
 your seat any day. So do
 something… don’t sleep on it…
 go over there. I don’t think
 anybody should ever sleep on
 anything — it’s not always good
 to let things calm down.

MELVIN
Hey… I’m charged here. But she
might kill me for showing up this
late.

SIMON
Then get in your jammies and I’ll
read you a story… I think you’ve
got a chance. The only real enemy
you have is her ability to think
logically — the best thing you
have going for you is your
willingness to humiliate yourself
if it gives you one chance in
whatever — so go catch her off-
guard.

Simon, who through his own relationship with Carol has shown Melvin how to reach her, now makes it clear through his words, the high point in his role as Melvin’s mentor.

Who tests the Protagonist (Trickster)? Three characters:

* Frank: At first, he is Melvin’s opponent, threatening to punch him out. Then he is forced to switch sides and seek Melvin’s help — to take care of Verdell when Simon is hospitalized. Both of those are tests. The biggest one, of course, is when Frank coerces Melvin into taking Simon to Baltimore — a huge test for Melvin.

* Spencer: When Spencer gets sick, it causes Carol to miss work. That leads to Melvin having a sort of psychological meltdown (a test). Moreover Carol can not be really free to explore her romantic inclinations while Spencer is sick (proved in the encounter in her apartment with the young man she has a date with). Once Melvin provides the means for Spencer to get better, literally ‘shapeshifting’ Spencer from sickly-to-healthy boy, this enables Carol to break free of those overt maternal ‘shackles’ and emerge — on the trip to Baltimore and night out with Melvin — as a romantic, sexual woman: An enormous test for Melvin — which he fails.

* Verdell: But the dog is probably the biggest Trickster of all. Forced into Melvin’s care, the dog becomes the first ‘significant other’ in Melvin’s life, so much so that when Simon reclaims his pet, Melvin has an emotional breakdown:

INT. MELVIN’S APARTMENT — LIVING ROOM — DAY

MELVIN’S POV

Verdell’s towel on the floor — near his bowl.

BACK TO SCENE

Melvin’s lips compress… he sits on the piano bench and
hits a few keys… looks at Verdell’s empty spot again…
there are those who “get the joke” — Melvin is clearly
one — he laughs suddenly and helplessly even as he feels
the panic rise in him…

… all his painstaking success in keeping the lid on and
now it threatens to blow for a reason he articulates.

MELVIN
Over the dog… an ugly dog.

It’s hilarious. But now the humor detours. An actual
sob is choked back… he gets up — following a definite
pattern across the room. He is conducting a small but
highest-stakes fight for survival. Momentarily a scared,
beaten middle-aged man — he races out the door.

Then the dog takes on a Trickster role with both Melvin and Simon — who will the dog favor this time?

In sum, each of these other characters in As Good As It Gets provides a specific narrative function tied directly to Melvin’s transformation.

Tomorrow in Part 3 of our analysis of this script, we will ‘switch protagonists’ and look at the story through Carol’s perspective.

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