Word: caroling
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...process, yet he had a deep influence on the outcome. Two: the President should have known that it was a conflict. The ad hoc process at Harvard was rigged to be a hanging jury. Three: Dennis Thompson has a great influence as a friend of Neil Rudenstine. His wife, Carol, works in the office that puts as hoc panels together." Carol J. Thompson, associate dean of FAS for academic affairs, is one of the academic deans who participates in the tenure process, but the assertion that she was involved in putting this panel together is under dispute...
Helen Hunt plays Carol perfectly: more than just a foil for Nicholson's humor, she captivates both his and the audience's attention whenever on screen. Carol, struggling between her sick son, her job and unsatisfying relationships with men, is both desperate and dignified. The movie itself, like Melvin, seems to be falling a little bit in love with her. At times she holds the screen in silence for a moment and nearly stares Melvin into sensibility...
...nearly destroyed her self-esteem, Simon gets a flicker of inspiration and draws her in the nude, boosting her confidence in her femininity. The attention the camera lavishes on her might seem excessive if her performance wasn't also so disarmingly real: Hunt makes it clear that gutsy Carol, after so much time spent worrying about her son and so many days serving lunch to Melvin, has earned these moments of beauty. Most important, she has an answer for most of Melvin's zingers--which might be why he is so smitten with...
...would use Simon as a wheel in the plot, but As Good As It Gets is sensible enough to create complete portraits of all its major characters. Cuba Gooding Jr. is amusing in a smaller role as Simon's art dealer, and Shirley Knight gives an understated performance as Carol's mother, who wants nothing more than to see her happy. She offers the sage piece of advice that "a normal boyfriend" simply doesn't exist...
Brooks' steady direction never allows the two-hour-plus movie to sag. The love story between Melvin and Carol plays itself out with plenty of small comedic surprises, courtesy of a script that keeps the story from getting predictable. The strength of the main characters makes a few of the movie's contrivances--like sending Melvin, Carol and Simon on a car trip to Baltimore just to get them all in one location--easily forgivable...