If OCD was portrayed accurately.

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2005)

As Good as it Gets is a movie portraying Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD, and the effects it can have on a person's every day life. Melvin Udall is a middle aged writer that lives his life without stepping on cracks, being late to breakfast, and shows no compassion towards anybody. Although Melvin shows no compassion for any other person when he is forced to baby sit his neighbors dog while his neighbor is hospitalized he falls in love with the dog as misses the company once he returns to his owner. It's not until his daily waitress, Carol Connelly, has to quit work to take care of her ill son that Melvin shows concern for another person. These are the first steps of Melvin being able to put his self-centeredness and compulsions aside to help others in need.
Melvin is devoted to his writing and to nobody else; as long as his day goes orderly he can keep his obsessive compulsions to a minimum. To a minimum meaning he will still wash his hands with 12 different soaps each time and will still switch his lights on and off 5 times before being satisfied, but he won't break stride as long as things work in his favor. When Carol is absent from work and can't serve Melvin his daily breakfast is when his disorder can no longer be controlled. He makes a personal visit to Carol's home to see why she is not present at work and in return hires a doctor to personally come to her house to take care of her son so she can return to work. For a person without OCD this may seem odd, but for Melvin this is just his way of getting his life back on schedule. Carol is hesitant in accepting Melvin's offer, but her mom convinces her it's a gift she cannot refuse. Melvin thinks his actions are only benefiting him, but he has changed Carol's life by devoting himself to somebody else that he cares for.
Melvin does a precise job in demonstrating what a person with obsessive compulsive personality acts like. He distances himself from everybody by compulsively acting out in a manner that in return nobody would want to associate them selves with, except for Carol. He is obsessed with the number of times he washes his hands, switches his lights on and off, and when he packs. Although Melvin mentions in the movie that he has OCD and could take medication that would help him, the movie implies to the general audience that he gets better because he falls in love and wants to change for Carol. He started showing compassion for others prior to him mentioning that he started taking the medication. Overall I think the movie showed the qualities of the disorder, but I don't think the treatment part of it was accurate.