Media Analysis 1

For my first media analysis paper, I chose to view the film As Good as It Gets, written by Mark Andrus and James Brooks and directed by James Brooks. The movie takes place in New York City, and focuses on the protagonist Melvin Udall, an intelligent, wealthy writer suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
From the beginning of the film, it is evident that Udall has OCD. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), OCD involves performing certain thoughts, rituals and routines over and over to the point where it causes distress and gets in the way of day-to-day life. An example they provide of this would be if a person with OCD had an obsession with dirt, they might develop a compulsion to wash their hands over and over again. Some more examples NIH give involve repeatedly checking or counting things. NIH makes the point that although healthy people also have rituals such as checking that they unplugged the coffee pot before they leave the house, the difference is that people with OCD perform their rituals even when doing so interferes with their daily life and puts them in distress. About 4 minutes into the film, the first obvious sign that Udall could have OCD appears when he enters his apartment and has to lock and unlock both locks on his door multiple times. This accurately portrays OCD because it involves repeated checking which often characterizes the disorder as well as it illustrates a nervous ritual which can also be a telltale sign of OCD. After he locks the door, he proceeds to turn the light on and off several times which demonstrates another ritual. After this, he demonstrates a possible obsession with germs. He enters his bathroom and throws away a pair of leather gloves, perhaps because he only ...

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...thought that the film’s portrayal of OCD was for the most part respectful. The film did not poke fun at OCD, nor did it ever act as if every case of OCD was the same. Although the film did not stigmatize OCD or mental illness in general, I think it could have done a better job at clearly stating that Udall had been previously diagnosed with the disorder. By almost never stating that, viewers are put in a tricky situation of not wanting to assume or diagnose the character with a mental illness. Also, since Udall is portrayed as such a negative and mean person throughout the whole beginning of the move, one could take it as “people with OCD are negative, harsh and rude” which is certainly not a rational conclusion. Overall, in my opinion the film was respectful in their portrayal, they could have just gone further to specify.

Works Cited

As Good as it Gets, nih.com