How sad is this?

As Good As It Gets

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

This little-known movie caught me by surprise, for all kinds of reasons, not the least being Nicholas Ray's awkward adventure into Douglas Sirk territory. More so, the story's focus on the now-more-timely topic of prescription drug addiction is captivating to see from a perspective 60 years later. As a piece of post-war cultural history, it is compelling, dealing as it does with doubts about medicine and concerns about mental illness. As a movie though, I was distracted by its stiff production and histrionic message. It sure is strange enough to keep your attention in any case.

This is another of those Lost and Forgotten Films from the 1950's. One that was Criticized, Ignored, Dismissed, and Shelved. Better Forgotten because it just didn't fit. It didn't fit the Archetype Nuclear Family, the Safe Suburbs, the Reliability and Security of the Authority Figure (Father/Teacher), the Church, and Last but not Least, Doctors and Miracle Drugs. This was just Anarchy, Subversive, and probably planted here as some sort of Communist Plot to Undermine the Burgeoning Middle Class. Of course it wasn't but was meant to be. A Scathing Story of the Failures and Flaws of all of those things We hold Dear that were about to show the Cracks in the Mirror of Self Righteousness.The Film is Fascinating when thought of in its Time-Place. It didn't hold much back and Proudly, and without Embarrassment, dared to Poke at the Conventions of the Day. It is Easy to Replace just about anything for the Culprit Cortisone (its abuse causes our Protagonist to Implode), it could be anything, but if Director Nick Ray in Hindsight could do it again, the Poison Pill would have gone Unnamed.This is one of those Antithesis Movies that are a Treat to Rediscover and Look at with Jaded Modern Eyes. What is on View here is a Psychotic Break from the Fragile Safety Net of Cultural Conventions and a Searing Look-See in on the Underneath of the Human Condition. Superbly Shot in a Contrasting Wide Screen Claustrophobic Setting, with some Great Acting and a Director who was most Comfortable causing Chaos among the Comfortable.

A teacher with a fatal disease is given a new lease on life thanks to cortisone, but he becomes addicted to the drug, leading to bizarre side effects. The film gets off to a rather dreary start, but perks up once the side effects start manifesting themselves. Mason's put downs of his wife are quite funny ("It's a shame I didn't marry someone who was my intellectual equal"). As the wife, Rush is intended to be portrayed as strong and loving but comes across as a clueless idiot who lets things spiral out of control instead of taking charge when Mason starts losing his mind. Mathau is good as a gym teacher. Ray does little to shape the material, settling for some cheesy effects instead.

Is there such a thing as a "normal man"? And if there were, how would he react to extraordinary circumstances such as a life-or-death struggle? Superficially, this film directed by Nick Ray from Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum's story seems to fit an exploration of these kind of ideas. Within the film's mechanics however is a story that sows more doubt into the soil of middle America -- we feel at times as if the psychotic delusions that have overtaken our schoolteacher family man Ed Avery (James Mason) might actually have more truth to them than the bland and self-consciously "dull" life he previously shared with his reserved and dutiful wife Lou (Barbara Rush).That's not to say that the addictive effects of cortisone are all beneficial, either to himself or his family. The substance saves his life and then slowly turns him into a psychotic. But along the way, he punctures through the malaise of the suburbs almost like a grown-up version of director Ray's "Rebel Without a Cause" -- throwing into question the complacent attitudes he finds around him. As a teacher, he begins to realize that education is slipping because teachers are told to bolster students' confidence and esteem instead of making them realize how little they know; this is just one of the pearls he drops that we as a culture would have been well-advised to pay attention to. The messenger may have been quite confused, but his message comes in clear at times.At other times, his rigor when focused on his son takes on a form of abuse that would surely crush the boy's spirit, so we can see that some of the Mason character's ideas have been already taken too far. It's as if the film is saying that the moment of insight is just a fleeting one separating two chasms of confusion. There are only two states of being for our hero -- numbed contentment or delusional hyper-engagement. But in the transition between the two the movie seems to reach its peak of black humor and subdued drama, much more powerful for me than some of the moments later when his psychosis took a physical form. This film deserves to be seen in a double feature with "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit." Or watched in a concert with Leonard Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti." It's amazing how these works of art were already psychoanalyzing the phenomenon of the suburbs itself. Is this a viable way of life? What kind of damage does it do to the human spirit, to be crammed in with so many others in a sort of simulation of wealth and luxury? For Ed Avery and his wife simply going into a different department store is a major social dilemma fraught with peril. How could they be expected to deal with such a major crisis as a drug addiction? What about the wife particularly, wanting to cling to the very last moment to her husband's prerogative? And the son so accustomed to trusting his judgment? Just as Avery's mental illness lays bare fundamental problems in his life and with his relationships, the film itself exposes weaknesses in the patriarchal and provincial spirit of the suburbs. Much like again "Rebel", this movie doesn't just typify the suburban scene and depicts its complexities -- if you want to see the 1960s as an explosion in American culture, this film is showing you that the fuse was already lit.