Script To Screen: “As Good As It Gets”
The final scene from the 1997 movie As Good As It Gets, written by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks.
The final scene from the 1997 movie As Good As It Gets, written by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks.
Plot Summary: A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is in an accident.
In this scene, Melvin (Jack Nicholson) travels in the middle of the night to see Carol (Helen Hunt) to express his feelings about her, one last attempt to convince her to be with him.
Here is the scene from the script:
She starts to turn. He tugs at her arm. As she turns
back to him. MELVIN
Hey, I've got a great compliment
for you. CAROL
You know what? I... MELVIN
Just let me talk.
(gathers himself
with uncertainty,
then:)
I'm the only one on the face of
the earth who realizes that you're
the greatest woman on earth. I'm
the only one who appreciates how
amazing you are in every single
thing you do -- in every single
thought you have... in how you
are with Spencer -- Spence...
(he has reached
her)
... in how you say what you mean
and how you almost always mean
something that's all about being
straight and good... ON CAROL She stands on the precipice of being transported away
from the logic which has been her lifeline. MELVIN
I think most people miss that
about you and I watch wondering
how they can watch you bring them
food and clear their dishes and
never get that they have just met
the greatest woman alive... And
the fact that I get it makes me
feel great... about me!
(a real question
filled with
concern for her)
You got a real good reason to walk
out on that? That last question clearly a true question, not the least
rhetorical -- she considers her answer, then: CAROL
No! It's certainly not. No -- I
don't think so. No. MELVIN
(tentatively)
I'm gonna grab you.
(with conviction)
I didn't mean it to be a question.
I'm gonna grab you. He kisses her. An awkward bomb of a kiss. They separate.
A tense beat. Then: MELVIN
I know I can do better. They embrace again. He does indeed do much better. A
first-class smooch. CAMERA MOVES DOWN to see his foot
land squarely on a crack in the sidewalk without his
knowledge. They break -- look at each other without a
notion of where to take it from here, and the ALMOST in
unison begin to walk away FROM CAMERA, Melvin following a
path that avoids cracks. Suddenly the lights of the
bakery turn on as it opens for business. CAROL
Warm rolls... They walk to the bakery, Melvin avoiding the cracks. As
they enter the bakery, a WORKER moves toward them to
clean the entranceway. Melvin, forced to step back onto
a crack, this time notices -- registers the momentous
fact and joins Carol inside as we: FADE OUT
Here is the scene from the movie:
There are some subtle changes in the movie. At the end of his monologue, instead of “You got a real good reason to walk out on that,” Melvin says, “Is that something bad for you to be around?” Both of them cast her choice in a negative light: “walk out on that” compared to “something bad”. I think the second line works best because the first line suggests a real option for her: to walk away. Plus the second line compels her to confront the reality of what she just heard which is far away from being something bad.
Another small change. Helen’s response in the script is ten words, three of which are the word “no”. In the movie, she only says the one word: “No.” My guess is this was a situation where Hunt as she “considers her answer” nailed all of those mixed emotions on her face for the camera to see. The only word needed was the single “No.”
A final note: One thing about Brooks’ scripts is the evocative scene description. Consider this:
She stands on the precipice of being transported away
from the logic which has been her lifeline.
That is a wonderful piece of psychological writing that clearly evokes the dynamic tension at work within her emotional self. I should note it’s also an example of a so-called ‘unfilmable’. So if you run into one of those scripturalists who insist you can only write what a moviegoer can see or hear, just point them to this Oscar winning screenplay.
What other differences do you notice in the transition from script to screen? Head to comments and share your observations, and about the movie in general.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.