A Close Examinition of a Relationship in the Romantic...

As Good As It Gets is romantic comedy that focuses on the relationships between a single mother/waitress named Carol, a reclusive obsessive-compulsive author named Melvin, and a gay artist named Simon. In the beginning you start to create ideas based on first impressions but all of those first impressions are put to the test when the artist gets injured. In this essay we will closely examine the relationship between Melvin Udall and Simon Bishop using Knapp’s Relational Development Model. In Knapp’s Model views the relationship development as a process with steps that need to be completed to deem a relationship successful. Therefore, all of the steps must be done one-at-a-time and in order to make sure they are effective and successful. The movie clearly illustrates these â€Å"steps† for us to see. In the opening of the movie you can start to see the relationship and ideals between Melvin and Simon. Melvin is harassing Simon’s dog and throws him in the ga rbage and when he is confronted by Simon’s assistant Frank, Melvin makes a jumble of bigoted comments to Frank about gays and blacks. Melvin also makes bigoted comments and rants to Simon when approached after finding his dog. This first stage of the Coming Together phase in the Relationship Development Model is the Initiating Stage where first impressions between the two people involved are made once the initial contact has been made. Simon thinks that Mr. Udall is a ruthless bigoted brute and Mr. Udall thinks that Simon is