" CRASH" FILM REVIEW

Essay by tboom8264University, Master'sA, April 2014

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

Is This Really As Good as It Gets? Try Love not Therapy

Tami B. Eikelboom

Arizona State University

MLS 504

In the movie As Good as It Gets, Jack Nicholson plays the role of Melvin Udall, a character who is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to Sigmund Freud, "obsessional neurosis is shown in the patient's being occupied with thoughts in which he is in fact not interested, in his being aware of impulses in himself which appear very strange to him and in his being led to actions the performance of which give him no enjoyment, but which it is quite impossible for him to omit" (258). Most of the obsessional actions are "very harmless and certainly trivial things," and they usually involve "repetitions or ceremonial elaborations of the activities of ordinary life" (259). Freud notes that some of the symptoms of the obsessive-compulsive patient are connected to traumatic experiences in the patient's past.

In addition, there are various "typical" symptoms that are shared by all obsessive-compulsive patients. The typical symptoms are based on the patients' "tendency to repeat, to make their performances rhythmical and to keep them isolated from other actions" (270).

There are many examples of Melvin Udall displaying obsessive-compulsive behaviors. He has rhythmic rituals for locking his doors, turning on his light switches, washing his hands, and putting on his slippers. In addition, he wears gloves in public (which he then throws away) and he avoids stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk. At the restaurant, he uses his own plastic utensils, which he carefully arranges on the table before eating. In the car, his "tunes" are neatly organized and labeled, and he has a pattern for laying out his clothes when packing for a trip.

There are also certain things about Melvin's...