10. As Good As It Gets
Afflicted with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder issues, bigoted writer Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) gets thrown in a spin when he gets lumbered with his gay neighbour's dog, also to find out his favourite waitress, Carol, is leaving her job. Udall has to have breakfast a certain way, every day - her departure means it's impossible for him to have his morning meal. The movie follows the usual blueprint for a romantic comedy, right down to the unlikely, mis-matched leads. There's even a road trip along the way. In less capable hands, this would be standard TV movie fare. What elevates proceedings is how the script works against the conventions for ironic payoff (in one scene, Melvin pays for a specialist to check the health of Carol's young boy; what seems a redemptive act of compassion on the part of Melvin turns out to simply be a means to an end, so that Carol gets back to work cooking his breakfast every morning). We shouldn't care about Udall's plight at all. He's a successful writer in spite of his afflictions, and although he's ended up painting himself into a corner, that corner happens to be on a pretty exclusive side of Manhattan. In the opening scenes, we get to see first-hand just how selfish and mean-spirited Melvin is, leaving little room for positive personality traits. It's testament to director/co-screenwriter James L. Brooks (most famous as producer on
The Simpsons) and his ability to weave an engaging story from so little, let alone have us feel something close to compassion for Udall. Even if we fail to feel sorry for him by the end of the film, we've at least had enough insight to see how imprisoned Udall has become, thanks to his OCD tendencies.