As Good as It Gets (1997)

Greg Kinnear plays artist Simon Bishop

As Good as It Gets on IMDB


'Melvin Udall is a racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic misanthrope who works at home as a best-selling romance novelist in New York. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder which, paired with his misanthropy, puts off the neighbors in his Manhattan apartment building and nearly everyone else with whom he comes into contact.

Melvin eats breakfast at the same table in the same restaurant every day using disposable plastic utensils he brings with him due to his pathological germophobia. He takes an interest in his waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), the only server at the restaurant who can tolerate his demanding behavior.

One day, Melvin's neighbor, a gay artist named Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear), is assaulted by one of his models in his own apartment when he interrupts the man's friends robbing him. Melvin is forced to take care of the artist's dog Verdell while Simon is in the hospital. Although he initially finds caring for the dog distasteful, Melvin becomes emotionally attached to Verdell and he begins to gain more attention from Carol. When Carol decides to get a job closer to home so she can spend more time with her acutely asthmatic son, Melvin's orderly world is gravely disturbed because Carol is no longer there to serve him breakfast. He asks his publisher to send her husband, who is a doctor, to Carol's apartment to care for her son, with Melvin himself paying for the resulting medical expenses, so that Carol will be able to return to work. Wary of owing Melvin for this gesture and misunderstanding his reasons, Carol takes the train to his apartment in the middle of the night to tell him that she will not sleep with him.

In the meantime, Simon's assault and subsequent rehabilitation coupled with the fact that Verdell seems to actually prefer Melvin, causes him to lose his creative muse. His friends convince him that he should go to Baltimore and ask his estranged parents for money, but in order to do this, Simon needs Melvin to drive. Melvin invites Carol to accompany them on the trip to lessen the awkwardness between the two men and so he can court Carol romantically. She reluctantly accepts the invitation and relationships among the three develop.'
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