I own a small 14" little black box that come with a VHS function. This is one of the oldest TV model you would ever see in the world now. I have a few classic movies in VHS in my collection. One of my favorites is "as good as it gets" by Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
"As good as it gets" is a love story, about two sick people. One with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD) and one other loaded with baggage. The moving part of the movie is that Jack Nicholson, while suffering from OCD, tried his very best to woo Helen Hunt. It was never easy, and he never quite get it right, either finding himself too lost for words or express the wrong thought. It all appeared like a comedy, but not funny at all if it is in real life. Obviously, Helen Hunt, who is the single mom in the movie was all too hung up over finding true love in her life, to the extent, putting all her heart and soul in her young kid becomes her top priority and she became over-anxious with tiny details.
It's an old movie and I guess most would have known the ending or the story for sure. The ending of the story does not necessarily imply that both Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will live happily ever after. It only showed both finally able to reach the same frequency and thread of thought and communicate properly. There were some awkward moments of expressing love to each others. Those scenes where both kiss were very hard to watch, which is not surprising. Love is not necessarily romantic, especially if two "sick" people try to fall in love. They have to try again and again, until they get it right, which is why Helen Hunt must remind Jack Nicholson, "Try not to ruin it by being yourselves" each time the latter tried to "say something nice". It is very moving because they are battling against their own demons to bring out the deepest sincerity hidden in there.There is quite a substantial degree of resilience and endurance in there in this rather intense love relationship. This is something quite realistic, it might take a lifetime for someone to overcome that.
The ending of "as good as it gets" implies that life is not all about getting married and have kids (not that if you do that, it will be a bad thing). Perhaps this is not something my parents' generation will understand. They seem to believe once marriage is on the card, things will sort itself out. There is an implicit fear of staying alone all your life and people are reacting to the fear by resorting to marriage, putting their issues about relationship aside, causing potential problems later. No one should be in a hurry to reach an ending, thinking all will end well in a marriage. because things never end, it only comes in stages, one after another. The question is what is the next stage.
In "as good as it gets", coming to the end of the movie, you never quite feel Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will be together forever or they will become a steady couple. You only see that they resolve their conflicts they have with each others and they are able to communicate properly, and that is a good step forward. Whether they will marry or not, that however is not important anymore. One step at a time, one stage to the next, up until the day you die, you are only reaching at a certain stage, that still does not mean the end. That is why life sometimes feel like a journey, even in our love life, whose next to you, married to you or not, in a relationship or not, they are not quite as important. The important thing is they are THERE in the current stage of your life They are THERE with you, at least they live in your heart, in that special place.
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