Miming Melvin...

~ this guy...

So… I’m not one for romantic comedies ~ he will be slain before saying the term rom-com… shit… There is one or two exceptions to this though. I love Jack Nicholson. I think he’s one of the greatest actors of all time. He’s pretty much hit every metric for acting roles around. I’m not here to talk about the actor himself, I’m here to talk about one of the people he brought to life. That guy is Melvin Udall.

I’m not sure if the name Melvin is a cursed name, but it seems to be the way they’re portrayed. In the movie As Good As it Gets, Melvin is the heavily Neurospicy powered protagonist of the story. Since it’s 1997, he’s only diagnosed with OCD. We all know better than that after watching this guy for five minutes. Yeah, he doesn’t like touching cracks on the ground. Yeah, he hates touching things, uses plastic utensils wherever he goes, and has a thing with light switches. I watch it and see a shitton more there though. I see a man who tells the world he’s angry at it, and the people in that world are the ones who get hit. He says one thing that has a completely different meaning to him than the understanding he’s trying to convey.

You're a disgrace to depression.

This guy is rude af to damn near every person he comes in contact with, yet he is a well known writer of romance novels. He hates the very concept of dealing with people, yet writes ~ he just lost his train of thought… stay tuned… things that make people feel good. He is a down to earth character that I can relate to. He hates the world for what he sees, and what he sees makes him hate himself for hating the world. It’s hurting him because of what it’s doing to him, and he can’t explain what that is so he lashes out.

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

Before I disagree with this statement, I have to say that this is rude as hell. There’s something more than OCD going on there. The man is chauvinist, racist, and sexist. He calls one of his only “friends” Simon, Simon the Fag. He hates on Simon’s dog that he later spoils and treats with a strange kindness. He hates kids, ~ and damn near every other human yet goes above and beyond the call to take care of his… love interest??, Carol. The man is a walking dichotomy, not that he wants to be. His body and mind are in a constant fight against the rest of the world. It sees danger in everything and his amygdala responds with more fight with the things he can and more flight with the things he can. Everyone possessed reason and accountability, some more one than the other or more or less of both. We’re also filled with the capacity for understanding, again some more some very little. ~ some have very little unless it affects them in the most intimate ways… It’s not that Melvin doesn’t understand or care, his shields only let so much in, and that much isn’t enough to see the full image. Once he’s able to allow some more color in, he can understand that the world doesn’t end at his glasses.

Melvin: Just let me... let me talk. I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, "Spence," and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that's all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good... about me.

He has the capacity for great emotional maturity, once he understand that he has emotions that he can access for his relationships. He lets Simon in and he gives Simon an understanding that everyone has something to give. I would say Simon is his best friend, he’s just too blind to truly see that or he just doesn’t care enough yet to. ~the drugs help… His defensive walls break when he begins to see the underlying feelings he has for that one woman he has to see when he goes to dinner at that one table he has to sit at. It’s not really about the seating or the silverware, it’s about her. His whole mania is truly about her, and he’s built this defensive lie for himself that it’s all about the other things. It’s not about the bacon, he really loves that ugly ass dog.

Simon: Thank you, Melvin. You... overwhelm me. I love you.
Melvin Udall: I tell you, buddy... I’d be the luckiest guy alive if that did it for me.

There are days I wonder at Melvin. He’s got so much noise in his head, and by the end of the movie, he’s on his way to a more colorful life. I wish it could be that way for the rest of us. I think that if Melvin could explain the things in his core that describe the world to him, then things would be great. It’s not the fairy tale ending that we are looking for, even though we desire it. We want to be happy in our skin, comfortable in the world, and understood by the ones we love.

~ and that is daunting…