History Film / AsGoodAsItGets

From here, RuleOfDrama ensues. A Creator/JamesLBrooks production, with the soundtrack, by Music/HansZimmer.

%%* SilverFox:
%%-->'''Carol''': ''When you first came into the restaurant, I thought you were handsome. [[DeadpanSnarker And then you spoke.]]''

** We never find out much about Melvin before the events of the film, but he admits in one scene that his father used to beat him on the hands with a yardstick whenever Melvin made a mistake playing the piano. Also, his father didn't leave his room for eleven years.

* [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave Grandpa, What Massive Hotness You Have]]:
-->'''Carol''': ''When you first came into the restaurant, I thought you were handsome. [[DeadpanSnarker And then you spoke.]]''

* TheCameo: Creator/LawrenceKasdan plays Melvin's doctor, and Creator/ToddSolondz is one of the passengers on the bus when Carol goes to see Melvin.

From here, RuleOfDrama ensues. Being a Creator/JamesLBrooks production, natch, it intersperses all the emotional weight with heaping doses of [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]] & [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming.]] Also, [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the soundtrack]], by no less than Music/HansZimmer, is also the [[UnusualEuphemism kitty's pajamas.]]

* NippleAndDimed: One of the rare examples of this happening in a non-R rated film; just as Carol knocks on Melvin's door she realizes in rapid order that A, her shirt is soaking wet; B, she isn't wearing a bra; and C, she's very cold(if you take our meaning). The only option she can come up with is to grab her shirt and hold it away from her breasts for the duration of their talk. Interestingly enough, while leaving Melvin's later in the scene, Carol is clearly wearing a bra (the shots of her back plainly show a bra outline).

From here, RuleOfDrama ensues. Being a Creator/JamesLBrooks production, natch, it intersperses all the emotional weight with heaping doses of [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]] & [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming.]] Also, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the soundtrack]], by no less than Music/HansZimmer, is also the [[UnusualEuphemism kitty's pajamas.]]

** And :

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/as-good-as-it-gets-with-a-brussels-griffon4_1272.jpg]]

From here, RuleOfDrama ensues. Being a Creator/JamesLBrooks production, natch, it intersperses all the emotional weight with heaping doses of [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]] & [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming.]] Also, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the soundtrack]], by no less than HansZimmer, is also the [[UnusualEuphemism kitty's pajamas.]]

* CampGay: Melvin certainly seems to think Simon is one. Aside from a positively {{Squick}}y attachment to his dog, he's fairly straight up.

** Simon's back story involved his childhood pastime of painting his mother in the nude. [[FreudWasRight His dad didn't approve.]]

''As Good As It Gets'' is a 1997 RomCom from the mind of Creator/JamesLBrooks, and starring Creator/JackNicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Featuring a relatively small cast, the crux of the story revolves around a reclusive novelist named Melvin Udall: his hostility toward his neighbour, Simon (Kinnear) and his [[strike: fixation]] dependence on Carol Connolly (Hunt), a down on her luck single mom with a perennially-ill son. The main characters are as follows:

-->--'''{{Tagline}}'''

->''"A Comedy From the Heart That Goes For the Throat"''

''As Good As It Gets'' is a 1997 RomCom from the mind of Creator/JamesLBrooks, and starring JackNicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Featuring a relatively small cast, the crux of the story revolves around a reclusive novelist named Melvin Udall: his hostility toward his neighbour, Simon (Kinnear) and his [[strike: fixation]] dependence on Carol Connolly (Hunt), a down on her luck single mom with a perennially-ill son. The main characters are as follows:

''As Good As It Gets'' is a 1997 RomCom from the mind of Creator/JamesLBrooks, and starring JackNicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Featuring a relatively small cast, the crux of the story revolves around a reclusive novelist named Melvin Udall: his harassment of his neighbour, Simon (Kinnear) and his [[strike: fixation]] dependence on Carol Connolly (Hunt), a down on her luck single mom with a perennially-ill son. The main characters are as follows:

* PrecisionFStrike: Three times (bucking the usual PG-13 rule), but especially this:

* NippleAndDimed: One of the rare examples of this happening in a non-R rated film; just as Carol knocks on Melvin's door she realizes in rapid order that A, her shirt is soaking wet; B, she isn't wearing a bra; and C, she's very cold(if you take our meaning). The only option she can come up with is to grab her shirt and hold it away from her breasts for the duration of their talk.

* MsFanservice: There really is no reason for Carol to get a SexySoakedshirt scene or prepare to bathe in front of Simon other than it appeals to the audience.

* DoubleTake: A passerby gives one at Carol's breasts; a rain-soaked Carol finds this odd, but it's because she doesn't realize her breasts are showing through [[WetSariScene her wet T-shirt]].

* MsFanservice: There really is no reason for Carol to get a WetSariScene or prepare to bathe in front of Simon other than this.

-->'''Melvin''':'' "I've got this, what--ailment? My doctor, a shrink that I used to go to all the time, he says that in fifty or sixty percent of the cases, a pill really helps. I '''hate''' pills, very dangerous thing, pills. Hate. I'm using the word "hate" here, about pills. Hate. My compliment is, that night when you came over and told me that you would never... well, you were there, you know what you said. Well, my compliment to you is, the next morning, I started taking the pills." ''
-->'''Carol''':'' "I don't quite get how that's a compliment for me."''
-->'''Melvin''':'' "You make me want to be a better man."''

* OscarBait: For reasons that have mostly to do with JackNicholson. Oh, it also won for Best Actor and Best Actress.
* PetHomosexual: Simon is a {{Deconstruction}} of this character type. [[spoiler:Essentially what happens when the PetHomosexual has a HeroicBSOD and [[TheDogBitesBack starts biting back]]. ]]

* WetSariScene: Carol gets one after running in the rain to get to Melvin's apartment.
* ShownTheirWork: Yes, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, though it manifests differently in each case, is presented fairly spot-on here.
* TitleDrop: Melvin says "What if this is as good as it gets?" in a psychiatrist's waiting room.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[Series/{{House}} Cuddy and Taub]] are sitting at Melvin's table until he chases them off.