This is a pretty good example of post-Cold War/turn-of-the-century Hollywood running out of ideas for new iterations of its standard formulas and trying to co-opt the arthouse. It wasn't a particularly thoughtful effort and it hasn't aged well at all.
Melvin (Jack Nicholson) supposedly has obsessive-compulsive disorder though in reality his particular antics suggest obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, an affliction which is more difficult to treat and identify and makes generally for a far less tolerable friend/neighbor/lover. That he allows himself to be drawn in to caring for a dog he dislikes belonging to a neighbor he also dislikes defies belief. That Carol, a relatively young and fairly intelligent girl next door with the looks of, well, Helen Hunt should fall for such a snide, unhappy old specimen as Melvin.
Indeed, I hate to say it, but the only thing both remotely "edgy" and true-to-life is the personality of Melvin's gay neighbor, Simon, even though the film only touches and then runs away from the seedy underbelly of the gay world in which someone like him often orbited in those days (and still often orbits).
It's a shame, too, because the talent is all there. But while the characters ring true, their subsequent actions and intrigues do not, and the whole thing just falls apart. As movies go, this isn't as good as it gets, not by a longshot.
Melvin (Jack Nicholson) supposedly has obsessive-compulsive disorder though in reality his particular antics suggest obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, an affliction which is more difficult to treat and identify and makes generally for a far less tolerable friend/neighbor/lover. That he allows himself to be drawn in to caring for a dog he dislikes belonging to a neighbor he also dislikes defies belief. That Carol, a relatively young and fairly intelligent girl next door with the looks of, well, Helen Hunt should fall for such a snide, unhappy old specimen as Melvin.
Indeed, I hate to say it, but the only thing both remotely "edgy" and true-to-life is the personality of Melvin's gay neighbor, Simon, even though the film only touches and then runs away from the seedy underbelly of the gay world in which someone like him often orbited in those days (and still often orbits).
It's a shame, too, because the talent is all there. But while the characters ring true, their subsequent actions and intrigues do not, and the whole thing just falls apart. As movies go, this isn't as good as it gets, not by a longshot.